538 CORPUS CHRISTI TO WASHINGTON. 
the telegraph wires were broken, and the communica- 
tion consequently interrupted. I therefore took pas- 
sage on the steamer Chancellor, to sail this evening for 
Louisville, accompanied by Dr. Webb and Messrs. Ja- 
cobs and Force. Major Emory and the other officers 
of the Commission were to take the land route; but 
having caught a cold in my boat voyage along the 
Texan coast, from which I was suffering severely, 
I deemed it most prudent to take a more easy though 
longer route by the Mississippi River. 
Our boat was deep and consequently slow, so that 
it was ten days before we reached Louisville: the day 
after, we took another steamer for Cincinnati, which 
we reached the following morning, and immediately 
took the railway cars for Cleveland, on Lake Erie, 
where we arrived the same evening. I felt keenly 
the change of temperature to-day, as the ground was 
covered with snow, and we found ourselves in the 
midst of a northern winter. After an hour’s delay 
at Cleveland, we took the shore railroad for Buffalo, 
which should have arrived at that place the following 
morning in time to connect with the eastern train for 
Albany ; but we got fast in a snow bank, which de- 
tained us for six hours. Our fire went out, and there 
was no wood to supply it. At length the train from 
Buffalo opened the track, which enabled us to push 
our way through, so that we arrived in that city at 
noon. Having missed all the morning trains, we were 
obliged to wait until five o’clock before we could start 
for Albany, when the ice and snow on the rails so re- 
tarded us that we arrived there too late for the morn- 
ing cars. We had, therefore, to lie over a day; but 
