CONSTRUCTION OF RIVER-STEAMERS. 



may have an intermediate position between those of the adjacent 

 one, as represented in fig. 2. 



The spokes, which are bolted to cast-iron flanges, are of wood. 

 These flanges, to which they are so bolted, are keyed upon the 

 paddle-shaft. The outer extremities of the spokes are attached to 

 circular bands or hoops of iron, surrounding the wheel ; and the 

 paddle-boards, which are formed of hard wood, are bolted to the 

 spokes. The wheels thus constructed, sometimes consist of three, 

 and not unfrequently four, independent circles of paddle-boards, 

 placed one beside the other, and so adjusted in their position that 

 the boards of no two divisions shall correspond. 



2. Although the subject of this tract is limited to inland trans- 

 port, it will not be without interest to exhibit here some particulars 

 of the progress made in the United States in sea steam-navigation. 

 With this view we have given, in the following table, (p. 36), the 

 dimensions and power of some of the principal sea-going steamers 

 which had been constructed and brought into operation at the date 

 of the last reports accessible to us. It must, however, be always 

 remembered, that the progress of enterprise, more especially in 

 this department, in the United States is so rapid, that probably 

 before these pages come into the hands of the reader many other 

 and more magnificent vessels will have been launched. 



3. The other class of steamers used for towing the commerce of 

 the rivers corresponds to the goods trains on railways. No spec- 

 tacle can be more remarkable than these locomotive machines, 

 dragging their enormous load up the Hudson. They may be seen 

 in the midst of this vast stream, surrounded by a cluster of twenty or 

 thirty loaded craft of various magnitudes. Three or four tiers are 

 lashed to them at each side, and as many more at their bow and at 

 their stern. The steamer is almost lost to the eye in the midst of 

 this crowd of vessels which cling around it, and the moving mass 

 is seen to proceed up the river, no apparent agent of propulsion 

 being visible, for the steamer and its propellers are literally buried 

 in the midst of the cluster which clings to it and floats round and 

 near it. 



4. As this water goods train, for so it may be called, ascends the 

 Hudson, it drops off its load, vessel by vessel, at the towns which 

 it passes. One or two are left at Newburgh, another at Powkeepsie, 

 two or three more at Hudson, one or two at Fishkill, and, in fine, 

 the tug arrives with a residuum of some half-dozen vessels at 

 Albany. 



D 2 35 



