CHAR XXX.] FLAT BOATS. 167 



ing down from the Ohio and Red Rivers, heavily laden 

 with cotton. This cotton has already been much 

 compressed when made up into bales; but it under 

 goes, at New Orleans, still greater pressure, by steam 

 power, to dimmish its bulk before embarkation for 

 Liverpool. 



The captain calculated, that within the first seven 

 hours after we left the wharf, in the Second Munici 

 pality, we had passed no less than ten thousand bales 

 going down the river, each bale worth thirty-five 

 dollars at present prices, and the value of the 

 whole, therefore, amounting to 350,000 dollars, or 

 73,5007. sterling. All this merchandise would reach 

 the great emporium within twenty hours of the time 

 of our passing it. Before we lost sight of the city, 

 we saw a large flat boat drifting down in the middle 

 of the current, steered by means of a large oar at the 

 stern. It was laden with farm produce, and had come 

 about two thousand miles, from near Pittsburg, on 

 the Ohio. I had first observed this kind of craft on 

 my way to the Balize, meeting near Fort Jackson a 

 boat without a single inmate, thirty-five feet long, 

 and built of stout planks, with a good roof. It was 

 drifting along on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, the 

 owner having abandoned it after selling his corn and 

 other stores at the great city. He himself had pro 

 bably returned to the North in a steamer ; having 

 found the substantial floating mansion, in which he 

 had lived for several weeks or months, quite un 

 saleable, although containing so much good timber 

 shaped into planks. It is the duty of the wharfinger 

 at New Orleans to see that the river is not blocked 



