|:.£TTERS or HIBERNICUS 



LETTER I. 



Montezuma^ 26th May, 1820. 

 I ARRIVED here yesterday, my dear Sir, in the 

 packet boat Chief Engineer, which plies betweeji 

 this place and Utica, as consort to the Monteza- 

 ma. The latter is a boat 74 feet long and 13 

 feet wide, which draws, when not loaded, seven 

 inches of water, and when loaded eleven. These 

 passage boats take a trip and a half twice a week 

 between Utica and Montezuma on the canal. 

 The distance is about 96 miles^ and although the 

 whole voyage can be performed in 24 hours, yet 

 it generally takes nearly two days. They are 

 drawn by two horses at the rate of four miles an 

 hour, which are relieved by relays at the distance 

 of every twelve miles. The expense of a passage 

 from Utica to Montezuma is four dollars only, in- 

 cluding provisions and a birth for lodging ; and 

 I assure you that the accommodations are as 

 i^ood as can be found on board of the steam boats. 

 There is also a regular packet between Utica and 

 Rome, which takes a trip once a day. By a trip 

 T mean the voyage out and home. We passed 

 several boats, rafts, and scows on our passage. 

 Some were built on the canal, and others trans- 

 ported to it from the Mohawk and Seneca rivers* 



