An Old-time Voyage. 47 



being a packet boat, is only intended for passengers. 

 It has all the conveniences of a steamboat, without 

 danger, and without the noise of the wheels. It is 

 towed by from one to three horses. A long rope is 

 attached to the boat. We are every moment pass- 

 ing boats laden with produce, on their way to the 

 Hud.son River. There are already three thousand 

 boats on the canal, and there are hundreds more 

 building. The following is something like a sketch 

 of a boat as it appears when pa.ssing up this canal. 

 {Here a pen and ink sketch is introduced). The 

 boatmen have a merry life — no storms, no fear 

 of w^recks, always able to jump on shore, never 

 obliged to wait for a fair wind, able to calculate, to 

 an hour, the time of their arrival at their destined 

 port ; meeting ever}^ moment with their friends, 

 laughing and joking, and seeming all in a good 

 humor. The boats pass each other almost as easily 

 as wagons in King, street, and a boat passes a lock 

 in five minutes, and sometimes in half the time. 

 When we come to a lock, I am in the habit of jump- 

 ing on shore and picking up all the plants in bloom 

 that appear new to me. The sweetbriar everywhere 

 grows along the canal ; the air in some places is 

 scented with a purple asclepias. The elder and 

 sumach are the most common jdants now in blos- 

 som. The gooseberry is found hanging almost in 

 the water. The black raspberry is most abundant. 

 A beautiful species of purple columbine is clamber- 

 ing among the rocks. The hills are covered with 

 tall trees of the butternut and shell -bark, bending 

 with nuts. The chestnut is in full blossom. The 

 mountain scenery is very pretty along the banks of 

 the canal, as we hug closely the Mohawk River, and 

 are frequently in sight of the main road. In one or 

 two places the mountains rose perpendicularly for 

 two or three hundred feet. Some seemed fairly un- 



