308 COLD WEATHER CANAL PACKETS. 



along Lake Erie into Illinois. However advantageous canals 

 may have hitherto been found in the United States, such a 

 conveyance is incompatible with the order of things that is 

 arising. The population is advancing so rapidly towards the 

 west, that the intercourse between the Eastern and Western 

 States must enormously encrease, while canals are shut by 

 ice for nearly five months in the year. In this view railways, 

 which afford communication during the whole season, will be 

 had recourse to, and are admirably adapted to the country 

 and climate. There is abundance of iron and coal in the 

 United States, and the substitution of railways for canals will 

 be aided by the rapidity of conveyance, the application of 

 steam power, and unobstruction from frost. 



While passing down the canal, the temperature of the at 

 mosphere became cold ; on the third morning, snow covered 

 the ground to the depth of three inches, which did not entirely 

 melt by the influence of the sun ; and although the canal was 

 not frozen, in consequence of its waters being kept in motion 

 by the incessant traffic, the pools on the banks were covered 

 with ice several inches thick. On reaching Albany, I learned 

 Fahrenheit s thermometer had stood twelve degrees below the 

 freezing point on the 29th October, and at New York ten 

 degrees. 



The canal packets were crowded with passengers all the 

 way from Buffalo to Schenectady, who made themselves 

 agreeable to each other, and time passed as pleasantly as the 

 nature of things would admit. Two of the gentlemen on 

 board seemed to be clergymen, with whom I conversed a great 

 deal, and was invited to spend some days with one of them. 

 Few things in America seem more extraordinary than the 

 sleeping accommodation of the packets. The seats on which 

 the passengers sit during day, around the sides of the vessel, 

 open out by means of hinges, and having the outer extremi 

 ties supported by small ropes from the roof, form beds. A 

 second tier of beds is formed by frames hooking to the sides 

 of the vessel, and supported from the roof by ropes. The 

 sleeping place for the ladies is separated from the gentlemen s 

 by a curtain, and the two rows of beds around the sides of 

 .the packet have a close resemblance to shelves in a British 



