Extract No. 2

We arrived at Schenectady about one o'clock. As all the passengers in our stage were bound to Utica, one of the number proposed that he be appointed to bargain for our passage in one boat, as the opposition run very high, or to speak more correctly, very low on the canal, and it required some policy, as we were soon convinced, to avoid imposition. As soon as the stage stopped at the Hotel, even before the driver with all his activity to undo the door, up stepped a large muscular fellow, and bawled out at the highest pitch of polite etiquette, "Gentlemen, do you go to the West?" "We do." "The packet starts at 2 o'clock, gentlemen; you had better take your passages and secure your births; only 3-1/2 cents a mile, gentlemen, and two shillings a meal, with best accommodations, and a very superior boat, gentlemen." "Hang his boat, gentlemen, don't take passage in her," said a second fellow. "I'll take you for less than half the money in a devlish fine boat, and charge you but a shilling a meal." By this time there were at least half a dozen more, all anxious for us to engage our passage with them at almost any price we pleased. But our Contractor very properly remarked, that he must see the boats himself before he would take passage in any. We therefore all sallied forth to the canal, which passes at right angles through the town. We selected a very superior boat of the Clinton Line, calculated to accommodate thirty persons. This boat is calculated for carrying freight, and the cabins are furnished in good style. The Captain actually engaged to take us to Utica, a distance of 89 miles, for one cent and a quarter per mile!! a York shilling for each meal extra, and to make no charge for births, which are a very necessary accommodation, as the boats run day and night. "Thinks I to myself" this will make up for the shaved dried beef, and prepared bread and butter. I had only time to take a casual peep at Schenectady, but it appears to be a thriving, pleasant town, and is located principally between the Mohawk and the Canal. Very few persons take the boats between this place and Albany, on account of the delay occasioned by the numerous locks. We "set sail by horse power," as the Irishman has it, about 2 o'clock P. M., the horses being attached to a rope about 30 yards long, made fast to the boat amidships, with our ideas pleasingly elevated at the thought of traveling on the Grand Clinton Canal for the first time. The afternoon was cool and pleasant, and never was I more delightfully situated as a traveller than on this occasion. A majority of my companions were Western merchants, well informed respecting the localities and prospects of the country we were passing through, and ready and willing to give the required information. The Canal, this afternoon's passage, has been for the most part immediately on the south bank of the Mohawk, which flows through a narrow valley of good land, but the hills on either side, unlike the Chester county high grounds, have a poverty-stricken appearance.

At the close of the twilight we arrived at Schoharie creek, distant 23 miles from our place of embarkation. This is the first place of danger I have yet observed. The creek is about 30 yards wide at this place, and is crossed by means of ropes stretched across the stream, which ropes are your only security; should they give way, you must inevitably go down the current and pass over a dam immediately below, of several feet perpendicular descent. In times of a freshet it is very dangerous. Two or three boats, like the Indians over the falls of Niagara, have already been forced involuntarily over it, and so far in safety. The horses are ferried over in scows, pulled by the same ropes. As darkness soon covered the face of nature, I retired to the cabin, and after sketching my observations, and enjoying a pleasant confab with my fellow travellers, retired to my birth, while our boat skimmed its peaceful way along this artificial and wonderful water communication.