FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 25 1 



I^^afting on tl)e Upper Hctdson. 



The Hudson River was never used by raftsmen below Albany ; for a raft 

 could make no progress unless both wind and tide were favorable. So, the lumber 

 was loaded into sailing vessels at Albany, and thus carried to New York or to the 

 old country. 



Mrs. Grant,* in describing some rafting on the Upper Hudson, as she saw it in 

 1768, says: " It so happened that the river had been higher than usual that spring, 

 and, in consequence, exhibited a succession of very amusing scenes. The settlers, 

 whose increase towards Stillwater had been for three years past incredibly great, 

 set up sawmills on every stream, for the purpose of turning to account the fine 

 timber which they cleared in great quantities off the new lands. The planks they 

 drew in sledges to the side of the great river ; and when the season arrived that 

 swelled the stream to its greatest height, a whole neighborhood assembled, and 

 made their joint stock into a large raft, which was floated down the river with a 

 man or two on it, who with long poles were always ready to steer it clear of those 

 islands or shallows which might impede its course. There is something serenely 

 majestic in the easy progress of those large bodies on the full stream of this copious 

 river. Sometimes one sees a whole family transported on this simple conveyance ; 

 the mother calmly spinning, the children sporting about her, and the father fishing 

 at one end, and watching its safety at the same time. These rafts were taken 

 down to Albany, and put on board vessels there, for conveyance to New York; 

 sometimes, however, it happened that, as they proceeded very slowly, dry weather 

 came on by the time they reached the Flats, and it became impossible to carry 

 them further ; in that case they were deposited in great triangular piles opposite 

 our door." 



The greater portion of the pine on the slopes along Lake Champlain was sent 

 to market in rafts which were taken through the lake and down its outlet — the 

 Sorel River — to Canada, from where it was exported to England. 



In 1808, owing to international disputes, Congress laid an embargo on all trade 

 or commercial intercourse with Canada. This restriction bore heavily on the lum- 

 bermen of Clinton County, who were dependent on the Canadian market, their 

 lumber being sent there by way of Lake Champlain and the Sorel River. That year, 

 a large timber raft, said to have been a quarter of a mile long, lay at Isle la Motte 

 waiting for a favorable wind to carry it over the line. The United States revenue 

 ofificer, supported by a company of militia, was watching it under orders to prevent 



* Memoirs of an American Lady. By Mrs. Anne Grant. 1876. Albany: Joel Munsell. 



