ments in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the Dutch towns along the Hudson, the settlements on the Delaware, and the scattered plantations on the Chesapeake, the Virginia rivers, and the sounds and inlets of the Carolinas and Georgia. With the exception of a small district about Philadelphia and another in Georgia there were no good roads in all the colonies. In the province of New York there were only twelve miles of land carriage. Villages, and even churches and court-houses, in Maryland and Virginia were always placed on the shore, for it was only by boat that the people could go to meeting or attend court. The traffic that grew up between the colonies was almost wholly by water, and the great wagon roads that finally stretched westward from Philadelphia aimed only to touch the Ohio. It was down this river that the first emigrants set out for the West. One hundred and one years ago Marietta, Ohio, became the port of departure for the entire North-west. Settlements beyond Buffalo in like manner followed the shores of the great lakes. The freight and passenger traffic between Canada and New York was by way of the Hudson, Lake George, and Lake Champlain, and it was to maintain this highway that one of the great battles of the Revolution was fought.

At the time of Washington's inauguration the President-elect traveled by horse to Elizabethport, New Jersey, and then selected a better route by taking a boat through the Kill von Kull to New York; and the messenger sent by Congress to Boston to inform Adams of his election to the vice-presidency took ship on the East River" with a fair wind for the Sound." Still later the early railroads were designed to be feeders for water routes, and to get to Philadelphia from New York you first took boat to Perth Amboy and then passed by rail along the old post route to Camden. To reach New York from Boston you took rail for Providence to meet a boat on the Sound. Until the railroad came we had no good country roads except in Pennsylvania, because both passengers and freight went by water. To this day the good people of the old State of Ohio complain that they have poor roads, forgetting that the Ohio and the lakes were their great roads until the railways invaded the interior of the State and created a demand for country roads.

From the very first the colonies began to build boats for their waterways, and in time an immense fleet of vessels of all kinds covered our coast, sounds, and rivers. The canoes were the first passenger boats, and from them sprung the flatboats that were poled along the rivers, the Dutch pirogues, the catamaran canoes, the sloops and schooners, and the passenger

canal-boats that made the limited trains on the early Erie. If the colonists rapidly grew rich, it was not alone because of the wealth of fish and lumber they found here, but also because of the wonderful facilities for water traffic they found waiting the enterprising prows of their ships.

Then came Fulton's first voyage on the Hudson. The times were ripe when he launched the Clermont. We had skillful and inventive mechanics, the finest boat-builders, and the best wood and iron in the world. Better than all, our mechanics and ship-builders had scant respect for precedent or the traditions of their trades. Fulton had struck the key-note-steampower afloat. At once appeared an entirely novel system of moving freight and passengers, and by a rapid evolution the modern American steamboat appeared and became, like the American locomotive, a model, and one on which nearly all vessels of its class are built throughout the world. Before Fulton's first voyage the Ohio was only available for flatboats drifting with the current. The Clermont practically created the Mississippi States and opened the West to the immigrant. Naturally enough the first steamboats after the Clermont plied on the Hudson, on the Sound, and on the Delaware and the Chesapeake. The steamer Orleans was the first boat built for the Western rivers, and was launched at Pittsburg, October 11, 1811. In August, 1818, the first steam vessel was launched on the lakes.

The people seem to have grasped Fulton's idea quickly, for his boat was immediately followed by others. In 1812 we built four steamboats, the next year seven, in 1814 two, in 1815 five, and in the next year seven. In the first ten years we built 131 steam vessels, and by 1832, twenty years after the first boat, we had built 474 steam craft, one hundred being launched that year. In the next three years the building of steamers fell off slightly; then it started up again, 145 being built in 1836 and 158 in 1837. Business depressions appear to have checked building again, and fewer were built each year till 1846, when 225 steam vessels were launched. Through the early fifties, before the railroads interfered with the river traffic of the West, the business increased wonderfully, and we find that in 1853 and 1854 more than 280 steamers were launched each year. The unsettled times before the war again reduced the number; but in 1863 and 1864 great numbers of boats were built, no fewer than 520 steam vessels of all kinds being launched in 1864. After the war the number built each year rapidly decreased for a few years and then slowly increased to 1874, when 404 boats were built. In 1882 we built 502, and since that time the number built has once

more rapidly decreased to 1886. Since that year the business has revived, and it is now active on the coasts and lakes and slowly increasing on the rivers. In all, since we began to build, we have launched, up to 1886, 14,214 steam vessels of all kinds, including naval vessels and a great number of small river steamers exported to South America and other places.

Taking the report of the Bureau of Navigation for the year ending June 30, 1886, we find that 230 steamers with a gross tonnage of 37,080 tons were built that year, distributed through the four great districts as follows: Atlantic and gulf coasts, 95; Pacific coast, 18; Northern lakes, 47; and Western rivers, 70. The chief States interested in building these vessels were Maine and Massachusetts, 6 each; Connecticut, 9; New York, 41; Pennsylvania, 29; Ohio and Michigan, 14 each; Tennessee, 12; Kentucky, 13; West Virginia and Florida, 8 each; Oregon, 9; California, 5, and other States a less number each. Dividing these vessels according to their motive power into three classes, we find that 17 were side-wheel boats, 80 were stern-wheel boats, and 133 were propellers. On the Atlantic and gulf waters, 7 were side-wheel boats, II were stern-wheelers (probably for Southern waters), and 77 were propellers. On the Pacific, 8 were propellers and 10 had stern-wheels. On the lakes the majority were propellers, there being 44 of these and only one stern-wheel and 2 sidewheel boats. On the Western rivers there were 8 side-wheel boats, 58 stern-wheelers, and only 4 propellers.

In that year there were 5467 steamers in use on our coasts, rivers, and lakes, distributed as follows: Atlantic and gulf coasts, 2662; Pacific coast, 425; Northern lakes, 1280; Western rivers, 1105; aggregating over 1,522,983 tons burden. Though there have been many wrecks on all our waters in the past two years, there is to-day probably a somewhat greater number of steamers in commission, this being notably the case on the lakes. When does this great fleet sail, for what ports does it steer, and where can we travel by these five thousand boats?

It is well now and then to take account of stock of our heritage. It is estimated that we have over twenty thousand miles of navigable waters traversed for the whole or for a part of each year by regular lines of steamboats and steamships. We have several great routes on which one can travel for a week without changing his stateroom. There are hundreds of towns where the only means of communication is by water, and probably a million of our people receive their mail by steamboat. It is difficult to make a mental picture of the enormous extent of our available waterways. Were they

improved and made useful to their full capacity in all seasons they would probably far exceed in value our entire railroad system.

Get out your atlas and trace the magnificent lines on which our heritage is planned. It will repay the study if it leads to a right understanding of the splendid opportunities we have for pleasure travel in every climate, in all waters, through all variations of scenery, and in hundreds of boats all flying our flag. No man can fairly be said to know this country until he has seen it from the deck of a Sound or coastwise steamer or from the guards of a Western river boat; until he has looked over the waters of the great Northern lakes, steamed through the Golden Gate, or gazed from his stateroom window upon Alaska glaciers.

Travel is called the great educator. How can it teach at forty miles an hour? No man ever learned much from a car window. He may have a vague notion of trees and farms, squalid suburbs, and union depots, and yet know nothing of great States and great cities. You can enter and leave Baltimore or Cincinnati, Buffalo or Cleveland, by rail and see no more of those notable and beautiful cities than the Boston man reported of a Connecticut town. He had been there a hundred times, yet had "seen only the cellar of New Haven." It is quite possible to ride from New York to Albany and by sitting on the right-hand side of the car not see the Hudson. By taking the wrong chair in the drawing-room car a man may skirt the glorious Sound for a hundred miles and not know that it exists. People are advised to "take the picturesque Baltimore and Ohio," and then engage a sleeper on account of cut rates.

It is not all of life "to get there." Wherein does it profit a man to arrive on time, if he loses all sight of his own country? Who is the happier or wiser or morally better to-day by reason of more speed? Let the drummer and the fugitive from justice take the limited train. Flight is their only aim or salvation. The man who travels to see that he may learn, the wiser people among those who travel for pleasure, go by boat. For the Western man there is all the charm and novelty of salt water. For the Eastern man the great rivers offer new and strange voyages of delight. For the Southern man, eager that his boys and girls learn something of their country, there are the great Northern seas where they may breathe new and bracing airs, spend days and nights in voyages past strange headlands and great cities, and see the sun set behind fresh-water horizons.

Where can we go? Which of all our twenty thousand miles of waterways are the most attractive and convenient, and which afford the

greatest variety of scenery and climate? Not all are equally interesting, and it is not difficult to select from 3000 to 6000 miles of pleasure travel that will not require a "portage," or land travel, of over eight hours at any one time. A vacation of a month will be ample time to travel three thousand miles by water and see something of the three great divisions of our water system—the coast, the lakes, and the Western rivers. On such a trip a man, if he is so minded, can really see the country, travel at ease, sleep in comfort, and dine sumptuously. In place of the dreadful roar of the train by night he will be lulled by the musical swash of the waves; in place of the ill-smelling, diphtheritic car he can have the broad deck, the life-giving breath of the sea, fragrant airs from farms along the banks, and the bracing winds of the lakes. Besides all this, there would be at the end of the trip a comforting sense of economy in expense.

First and most attractive on our Eastern coast is the grand gulf of Maine. The cold arctic current that slips in through the Straits of Belle Isle circles round this noble sea between Nova Scotia and Cape Cod, making a great ice-water cup for the cooling of the nation. The breeze is always chill; but it is an arctic wind, instinct with life, and he who can stand before its cold wins red blood and length of days from its salty winds. From Boston steamboats and steamships skirt the rocky shores, creep up the shining rivers, or invade the inlets of wooded Maine. Here lies Mount Desert, and Thatcher's Island lighthouse points the way to summer homes on Appledore. Picturesque old Halifax is 'cross seas due north-east, and Plymouth Bay invites towards the south. For the Western man short voyages out of Boston or Portland might fill a month of most picturesque and delightful travel, with many pleasant stops along the way. For one trip, to include several points, take steamer from Boston direct to Halifax, and then a few hours by rail through Evangeline's land will bring you by boat across the Bay of Fundy to St. John. From St. John a boat can be taken direct to Portland, past Grand Manan, Mount Desert, and along the shores of Maine. From Portland there is a steamer direct to New York, crossing the beautiful Massachusetts Bay, skirting the whole of Cape Cod, and steering west through the Vineyard, past the summer cities of the islands, and on through Long Island Sound to the East River. Such a trip would take about fourteen days, and would touch three of our most picturesque cities and two Canadian towns well worth seeing, and would include a very remarkable change of climate from the cold winds over the misty hills of Bluenose

Land to the soft airs of drowsy Cottage City. Should you venture farther into foreign seas, there is a boat at Halifax for Newfoundland— a trip of a week along strange coasts.

When we come south of Cape Cod we enter a new climate and warmer waters. We leave the arctic current and feel the influence of the Gulf Stream. The climate of the Vineyard and the two bays which make up into Rhode Island and Massachusetts is quite different from that of Boston, and as a result these splendid waters are lined with pleasure cities. Steamboats from Providence traverse the whole of Narragansett Bay, down to Newport and Block Island. Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard both offer short voyages full of interest, and to the west opens the splendid Sound, perhaps the finest yachting ground in the world. Along Long Island Sound lie the oldest watertravel routes in this country, and to-day are traversed by the finest and largest passenger steamboats in the world. Every Englishman who visits this country includes a trip on the Sound boats as one of the things that must be done, however short his stay. There are several boats for Boston and the East from New York every day, the longest and most famous route being the Fall River one. Another interesting route is by the way of Providence, as that includes, in the summer, a trip up Narragansett Bay by daylight.

It is a pity that we are, as a people, in such a hurry. Were we more leisurely in our pleasures there would be a daylight line through the Sound. Some day there may be a canal across Cape Cod, and then we shall have one of the most beautiful short voyages in the world-by day boat from New York direct to Boston. There is now an outside line of fast freight boats between Boston and New York, but only the happy friends of the owners can take this charming trip. If the line were wise it would open its staterooms to the public in the summer months.

Before leaving the Eastern coast it may be noted that there are several short sea voyages in good steamers sailing from Boston. Steamers leave once or twice a week for Philadelphia and Baltimore, and include a fine sail across Massachusetts Bay, a run down the coast to the capes, and pleasant trips up the Delaware or the Chesapeake. A longer voyage is by fine, large steamers from Boston by the way of Cape Cod, through the Vineyard, and past the gaudy banks of Gay Head across seas to Savannah. To those worn out with city life and business cares such short voyages would be worth a dozen doctors.

From the earliest times New York has been the port of departure for packets steering for our Southern ports, and to-day we find

sailing every week the finest steamships in the world. Not so large as European steamers, they are quite as sumptuous, quite as elegant in point of decoration, and far more comfortable, because better ventilated, cleaner, and lighter. These boats offer fine voyages along our coast to Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, New Orleans and Galveston. For a touch of foreign shores and voyages over tropic seas there are fine boats for Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. All these tours, both long and short, are worth the taking for a summer trip, and the longer voyages make splendid winter trips that in twenty-four hours out of New York exchange winter weather for spring or summer. The Florida boats connect with small boats on the waters of our great winter pleasure State, and suggest charming inland voyages past orange groves and along the dreamy Indian River.

From New York there are many shorter water trips well worth the taking for those who cannot travel far from home. Through the excursion season there are probably a hundred thousand people afloat every day on the waters about New York. For two millions of our people these are the only voyages they can take, the only chance for a taste of the sweet breath of the sea. It is said that since Coney Island was discovered the infant mortality of New York has materially decreased. It is not the wretched island that has saved the lives of our babies, but the voyage down the bay. Among these shorter trips the steamers to Sound ports offer very charming afternoon excursions; and by taking the boats for Stamford, Bridgeport, or New Haven, and returning by rail, a breath of salt air and a restful afternoon can be gained that is well worth the cost. Of course the ride home by rail is a serious objection, and a better plan is to stay over night at New Haven or return by the night boat. Among other trips is the excursion to Sandy Hook and back, as it includes an afternoon on the bay in one of the finest passenger steamers in the world. It was this water route that made Long Branch, for were we obliged to go by rail there never would have been any Long Branch.

There are people who wonder why it was that New York became our chief city. The answer is plain enough-the Hudson. From Albany to Sandy Hook the river, or arm of the sea, made the first grand highway of the country. It opened the back door to New England, and by easy portages carried our infant trade to Vermont and Canada. It joined the sea to our first great wheatfield in the valley of the Mohawk. To-day the money value of the Hudson is probably twenty times

greater than that of the two railroads on its banks.

Before we leave the coast it may be noticed that the Delaware and the Chesapeake both offer short voyages from Philadelphia and Baltimore. The sounds of the Carolinas will some day be fine pleasure seas. To-day they are practically unknown waters to the tourist. The inland waters farther south will also some day be pleasure routes and share the business that is beginning to flow through Florida waters. It may be noted in passing that a very pleasant sea voyage from New York may be taken by boat to Portland, Maine, and then by boat to Boston, or by steamer and rail direct to Boston, and then by steamer to Baltimore or Philadelphia, and home by rail.

The shortest portage, or run, across the Appalachian backbone to the rivers is from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. There is no intimation of what is to come till you have left the depot at Pittsburg and crossed the town to the bridge opposite the Monongahela House. If you arrive in the evening, go to the bridge as soon as you are settled in your hotel; or, should you choose the Monongahela House, ask for a room on the river side of the house. Draw the curtain and look out. For the Eastern traveler going west for the first time it is perhaps the most remarkable sight in this country. Immediately beneath is the broad, sloping levee, or landing. The wide space of blackness beyond is the river, running swiftly in the darkness and reflecting the glare of miles of furnaces on the opposite shore. Their flames and streaming fires light up the steep wall of rock that seems to blot out half the sky. Those long constellations are the street lights of the town on the top of the mountain. The arched constellation to the left is the great bridge. The blackness of the left is the entrance to this the eastern port of our great river system. Suddenly a white gleam of light sweeps across the immense scene. It is the search-light of some steamer picking out a landing. The deep, discordant boom of her whistle echoes from the rocky hills, and the strange craft starts out vividly in the glare of the electric lights as she pushes her flat nose against the bank.

It is here that the Ohio is born. Here the Monongahela and the Allegheny, both navigable rivers, meet and send their waters westward for a thousand miles till they mingle with the yellow flood that comes down from the Big Muddy. It was here that the founders of States took boat; it was here that the West began; and it is here to-day that an immense trade starts for the great West and the greater South. Fourteen States can be reached by boat from this port. You can sail from this landing in regular passenger steamboats over thirteen thou

sand miles of river water. We have only to turn to the reports of the Lighthouse Board to see that this is not a mere guess at figures. Here we find that from Pittsburg to the mouth of the Ohio, a measured distance of 968 miles, there are 448 lights serving as aids to navigation. On the Big Kanawha-not by any means a well-lighted river-there are 27 lights on the first 73 miles from its mouth. The Tennessee has 37 lights on the lower 223 miles. The Mississippi, from St. Paul to Cairo, 933 miles, has 364 lights, and from Cairo to the jetties, about 1000 miles, shows 390 lights. The Missouri, from Kansas City to its mouth, has 38 lights for 386 miles. Here is a total of 3582 miles already lighted by 1299 lights. Yet the work of lighting is very recent, as none of the rivers were lighted a few years ago, and the work is still very far from being complete. If we count the unlighted rivers, we find that the Ohio and its branches are estimated by good authorities to give navigable waters for 3275 miles for a part of each year. The Mississippi valley can be reached by steamboats for over 10,000 miles, and, if we include the valley of the Red River of the North, for 500 miles more, making a grand total of nearly 13,800 miles of steam navigation. Even Pittsburg is not by any means the head of navigation, for in good stages of the water steamers ascend the Monongahela for 140 miles and the Allegheny for 10 miles.

The view of Pittsburg by daylight, if not so impressive as by night, is full of curious interest. To eyes accustomed to blue water the ranks of boats with bows turned upstream against the bank seem just a trifle disheartening. Are these the famous river boats of the West? Where are the sharp bows, the beautiful lines, the graceful stern of a real boat? The tall funnels and the naked stern wheels certainly suggest business, but very queer business. The boats seem like great dirty white houses set on flat scows only a few inches above the water. Appearances are deceitful. They lack indeed the brilliant white paint of our anthracite-burning boats, yet they are seaworthy, safe, fast, and comfortable. This Western boat is the evolution of science, Yankee ingenuity, and the most peculiar navigation in the world, and it is undoubtedly the most perfect marine racing and carrying machine ever designed. It is certainly the model for the river world, and floats to-day on the great rivers of Europe, Asia, and South America. It is the shoal water triumph of marine architecture, for it will carry enormous burdens with speed and safety over the slightest suggestion of water-or, as Lincoln is reported to have said, "will sail wherever there is an extra heavy dew." Before examining the river boat

in detail let us see for what ports we may sail from this harbor in the mountains.

Before steering down the Ohio it will be well, if time can be spared, to take a short trip up the Monongahela. By inquiring of the clerks on the afternoon boats you can find how far the boat will go before dark, and as they stop at ports along the way it is easy to find a train back to Pittsburg in the evening. In summer this will give a trip of thirty or forty miles through the hill country above Pittsburg, and will enable you to see a slack-water navigation system. To salt-water navigators the handling of the boats and the tows through the locks and the long pools of slack water are full of interest and are well worth studying, because it is by this system of slack water that our shallow Western rivers are made available. Ultimately it must be extended to the Ohio and other large rivers in order to make them useful through all seasons and stages of water. Unless something of the kind is done we shall some day see a great traffic greatly injured or left defenseless against the greed and selfishness of railroad corporations. At one time the port of Pittsburg was practically valueless during every season of low water; but since the Davis Island dam was built there is a good harbor at all times. Such a slack water system does not mean that boats must always stop at the locks, as on the Monongahela, for at Davis Island boats pass directly over the dam during high water.

From Pittsburg steamers sail three times a week for Cincinnati, a voyage of 467 miles, through a picturesque and curious country bordering four great States,- Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky,-and passing 23 large towns and cities and many more villages and smaller places. The boats start late in the afternoon and reach Cincinnati about 11 o'clock of the third night. During the first evening the boat passes through the manufacturing district below Pittsburg, with its wonderful pictures of flaming furnaces and the strange fires of natural gas. The gas and soft coal belt, the great tile and pottery country, the Ohio iron districts, the farming lands of southern Ohio and Kentucky, and the coke country, with its long rows of fiery eyes, each in turn presents strange sights to Eastern observers. The West Virginia hills, forest-clad, rocky, and abrupt, give a curious and romantic aspect to the river scenery, and both by day and night cities, towns, and lonely farms seem to drift by in picturesque procession. If no more time can be spared from your vacation, for once leave speed and the greed of time to those who travel because they must, and make the portage to Pittsburg. One day or one night will bring you to the river, and three days after you are landed at Cincinnati, only twenty-four hours