Open Road — Guides — Railroads — Canals — Bridges 



Queenstown, and, as I think, the navigation is not only very much 1808 

 shorter, but much easier. For when the lake salt is four dollars 

 and fifty cents at Buffaloe, it sells at ten dollars at Pittsburgh; 

 hence, allowing a dollar per barrel profit, the carriage from 

 Buffaloe to Pittsburgh will be five dollars by water. I believe 

 land carriage is now about six dollars per hundred weight from 

 Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The ice was very thick in Lake 

 Erie. 



3 To Millar's ferry along the bank of the lake. If it be no 

 object to call at Buffaloe, there is a road turning to the right, 

 about two miles from Buffaloe, which leads directly to the ferry, 

 and saves that distance. The stone that bounds the river here is 

 a mass of black chert. I arrived about twelve o'clock, but the 

 ice was so thick in the river Niagara that it was impassable till 

 three. There were three wagons of emigrants waiting to cross 

 to the British side from Shoharie in Newyork state, and Buffaloe 

 in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania; they were chiefly 

 Germans. They expected two hundred acres of land to cost them 

 about fifty dollars; I understand the British government sells 

 it at forty dollars per two hundred acres. The American emi- 

 grants to Canada generally complain, as I heard, of the violence 

 of party politics in Newyork state and in Pennsylvania. The 

 taxes in Canada are very light, but unequal. The crossing here 

 is three-fourths of a mile over; price half a dollar for man and 

 horse. They catch abundance of fish in the spring with a seine. 

 The family were dining on pickerell and salmon trout, each about 

 four pounds weight. 



1 5 To Chippeway : a house every three or four hundred 

 yards all the way. An excellent road through good land. Chip- 

 peway contains about ten houses. There are two good taverns, 

 one kept by Stevens, the other by Fanning. Stevens being the 

 nearest and the newest I stopt there. They are of equal repute. 

 Each has a new part connected with the old building, and each 

 has eight windows in front. The diningroom at Stevens's is 

 twenty feet by thirty, carpetted. The attendance good, and the 



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