454 AUDUBON 



Boats. Tons. Trips. Tons. 



1823, from Jan. i to Dec. 31, 42 7860 98 '9,453 



1824, " " " Nov. 25, 36 6393 1 18 20,291 



1825, " " " Aug. 15, 42 7484 140 24,102 



1826, " " " Dec. 31, 51 9386 182 28,914 



The amount for the present year will be much greater than 

 any of the above. The number of flatboats and keel- 

 boats is beyond calculation. The number of steamboats 

 above the Falls I cannot say much about, except that one 

 or two arrive at and leave Louisville every day. Their 

 passage from Cincinnati is commonly fourteen or sixteen 

 hours. The " Tecumseh," a boat which runs between this 

 place and New Orleans, which is of 210 tons, arrived here 

 on the lOth inst. in nine days, seven hours, from port to 

 port; and the "Philadelphia," of 300 tons, made the 

 passage in nine days, nine and a half hours, the computed 

 distance being 1650 miles. These are the quickest trips 

 made. There are now in operation on the waters west 

 of the Alleghany Mountains 140 or 150 boats. We had 

 last spring (1826) a very high freshet, which came four 

 and a half feet deep in the counting-room. The rise was 

 57 feet 3 inches perpendicular." 



All the steamboats of which this is an account did not 

 perform voyages to New Orleans only, but to all points 

 on the Mississippi, and other rivers which fall into it. I 

 am certain that since the above date the number has 

 increased, but to what extent I cannot at present say. 



When steamboats first plied between Shippingport and 

 New Orleans, the cabin passage was a hundred dollars, 

 and a hundred and fifty dollars on the upward voyage. 

 In 1829, I went down to Natchez from Shippingport for 

 twenty-five dollars, and ascended from New Orleans on 

 board the "Philadelphia," in the beginning of January, 

 1830, for sixty dollars, having taken two state-rooms for 

 my wife and myself On that voyage we met with a tri- 

 fling accident, which protracted it to fourteen days, the 



