234 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



conditions of life for the merchant-trader at that early 

 day were at best far from easy, and an honest success, 

 as then understood, required not only plenty of rough 

 work but careful planning as well. His goods, pur- 

 chased in the East, were laboriously transported across 

 the State of Pennsylvania, and if they came from Phil- 

 adelphia they must needs traverse the rough wagon 

 roads that led through Bedford to Pittsburgh. There 

 was an overland trail from Pittsburgh to Kentucky, 

 but merchants with heavy loads would naturally take 

 the easier river route. In going east to renew his stock 

 in trade, it was a common practice to travel on horseback 

 from as far west as St. Louis, but on returning the 

 merchant would often sell his mount at Baltimore, Phil- 

 adelphia or Pittsburgh, where a boat could be taken 

 for the remainder of the journey. 



The "ark" or flatboat was considered most convenient 

 for the transportation of either passengers or merchan- 

 dise down the Ohio, for any well-to-do traveler, while 

 floating leisurely with the current, could make himself 

 comfortable by fitting up snug sleeping quarters and 

 a kitchen on deck, and could go ashore at will, with the 

 certainty of satisfying his appetite for wild turkey, veni- 

 son and other game in the season. Wilson, who de- 

 scended the river in April, 1810, boarded and passed 

 many of these "arks," which he described as built in 

 the form of a parallelogram, from twelve to fourteen 

 feet wide and from forty to seventy feet long, with a 

 canopy to protect them from the weather; they were 

 casually helped along by means of two oars in the bow, 

 and steered by another and more powerful one in the 

 stern. "Several of these floating caravans," said Wil- 

 son, :< were loaded with store goods for the supply of 

 the settlements through which they passed, having a 



