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from New York, with the memory of a quiet, restful voyage over almost unknown waters through four great States. The best season for a trip on the upper Ohio is in spring or early summer, when the water is high and the country is at its vernal best.

At Cincinnati the river still invites to the West. Steamers sail every night from this port for Louisville, giving a night voyage on the river resembling that on the night boats between New York and Albany. This is, however, only a short trip, and there are longer voyages stretching westward before the Ohio meets the Mississippi. One of the best voyages from Cincinnati is by the boats of the Memphis and Cincinnati Packet Company to Memphis, a journey on the Ohio and Mississippi of 738 miles, including calls at a dozen large cities along the way. By adding this trip to the voyage down from Pittsburg, a journey of 1200 miles can be made in less than ten days, and still leave 800 miles more of unexplored waters towards the far South. By changing boats at Memphis this voyage may be continued to New Orleans, or the trip may be reversed by taking a boat going north to St. Louis. Another and shorter voyage can be made by leaving the boat at Cairo, five hundred miles below Cincinnati, and taking an up-river boat to St. Louis.

From St. Louis a long and notable voyage can be made by taking one of the Anchor Line boats direct to New Orleans, a trip of twelve hundred miles, which gives six days in one boat on our grandest river. It is a popular trip in the West, and a round trip of from twelve to fourteen days is often made by travelers in search of a restful water journey through the South. Far to the South other trips invite the hunter and the fisherman to wonderful voyages up semi-tropic rivers hundreds of miles beyond the well-beaten tracks of timid tourists.

St. Louis is also the port of departure for one of the finest river voyages on the continent. By taking the boats of the St. Louis and St. Paul Packet Company a voyage of 729 miles can be made on the upper Mississippi. This is the "Hudson of the West," a river offering days and nights of varied and attractive scenery that is often beautiful and is in many places full of curious interest to those who have never seen the West except from a car window. If no other trip is convenient, a trip either up or down should certainly be taken. The voyage takes about four days, and can be made as much shorter as may be wished by leaving the boat at any of the cities along the way. The entire trip includes stops at twenty-two cities of note in five of the north central States.

This gives in outline four of our most popular water routes in the West. The shortest trip

from Pittsburg to Cincinnati takes three days, and costs $7. The trip from Cincinnati to Memphis, four days, costs $10. The longest. trip in one boat is from St. Louis to New Orleans, a voyage of six days, and costs $20. The trip up the Mississippi to St. Paul is made in four days, and costs $16. By changing boats once or twice down the river the voyage may be extended from Pittsburg to the gulf; a journey of nearly 2000 miles can be made with close connections in about two weeks. From St. Paul, by changing boats once at St. Louis, a voyage of about 2000 miles may be made in from ten to twelve days. The voyage upstream is always slower, and more time must be allowed when round trips are made. The four trips already described, giving a journey of 2134 miles, can be made for $53, or about 22 cents a mile. These are first-class fares and include staterooms and meals free, though there is a disposition on some of the river lines to charge less for fare and to serve meals on the European plan. The first-class fare on the railroads is usually three cents a mile, with not less than two dollars for berth or sleeper, one dollar for a meal in the dining-car, and waiters and porters always anxious about fees.

Shorter voyages than these can be made by taking the boats at points along the routes, particularly on the upper Ohio and Mississippi, where the larger towns are close together on each shore. For instance, from Pittsburg to Wheeling, 90 miles; Marietta to Cincinnati, 296 miles; St. Paul to La Crosse, 173 miles; St. Paul to Rock Island, 397 miles; Burlington to St. Louis, 249 miles; and St. Louis to Grafton, 39 miles. Beyond these well-worn water paths there are at least one thousand miles more of "unknown rivers" dear to the fisherman, the hunter, and the explorer who dares escape the palace boats and voyage in "tramp steamers" on the less familiar streams towards the south or the north-west.

Thirty years ago these water routes were the only lines of traffic in the West and South. Then the rivers were crowded with fast boats, and all the world went by water. The boats won a world-wide fame for speed, capacity, and elegance, and were uniformly regarded as extremely valuable property. Any man who could build a boat was at liberty to sail these thousands of miles of fresh water, and was certain to find his decks crowded with freight and every stateroom full. To-day the railroads follow each bank for nearly the whole length of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and have absorbed the larger part of the once great river traffic. At one time St. Louis was the port of departure for the far West by way of the Big Muddy. Kansas City could only be reached by boat, and was itself a great port for river

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crafts going still farther steamboat service was extravagant and costly west. To-day the Missouri in management, while rates were high and is practically a deserted profits large. The companies now conduct river. The race of fine old their business with more economy and seek to river captains, who owned attract business by regular departures and arand steered their racing- rivals, more comfortable boats, and better table palaces, is dying out, and and stateroom service. The lines now more there are people to-day in nearly approach the Eastern lines both in all the river towns who equipment and management, and while the look backward with regret old racing captains, who threw their freight to the great and notable into the furnaces rather than be beaten by a days of river boating in rival boat, are passing away, the new men are the fifties and solemnly as- real captains of safe and comfortable boats. sert that the entire traffic The romantic days have gone from the rivers will some day disappear,de- forever, but the travel is safer, and, in a way, voured by greedy railroad more civilized. The last of the famous racing corporations. machines, the Natchez, was wrecked only a few months ago. The competition with the railroads has demanded a wholly different class of boats, and the tourists will compel a better passenger service on all the lines in the future.

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It is perfectly true that the Western steamboat interest has been seriously impaired by competition with the railroads and that the number of fast boats has greatly decreased. For the position of steamboat property in the past was peculiar. Large numbers of the boats were owned by the captains or their families, and in case of hard times or a cut rate war with the railroads the boats could be seized for debt and the traffic stopped. The competing railroad, on the other hand, might be equally in debt, but in the hands of a receiver it went on doing business while the poor boat owner was tied up with his boat.

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This is the common and the darker view taken of the steamboat interest on our great rivers. To offset this is the fact that the larger rivers are now well lighted, and more lights are added every year. The millions spent on the rivers have wonderfully improved navigation, and there are fewer wrecks than ever before. The slack water navigation, as on the Kanawha and the Monongahela, has greatly extended the season in which boats can run, and has thus extended the earning time of every boat on these waters. The ownership of the boats has also changed, and in place of single "tramp" steamers there are now regular incorporated companies owning large fleets of boats and having abundant capital. These companies are enabled to furnish better, cheaper, and more regular service, with less danger of ruinous competition with the railroads. Formerly the

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In the opinion of those competent to speak on the matter, the prospects for the passenger traffic on the rivers is far from discouraging. Once all the world had to go by boat or stay at home. Now the larger number take the cars, and in order to retain any traffic at all the boat lines must offer superior inducements in the way of price, comfort, and attendance. This they seem prepared to do; and it is safe to say that the time will come when many of the river routes of the West will be as popular as the Hudson River or Long Island Sound, and a trip on these great waterways will be regarded as quite as important to a right understanding of the country as a day on the North River.

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Within a few years regular passenger boats, both side-wheel and propellers, have been placed on the lakes, and now every port on our inland seas can be easily reached by passenger steamers from Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chicago. On the St. Lawrence we share with our Canadian friends one of the most charming water-parks in the world, and countless little voyages of pleasure may be taken in both great and small boats along placid waters among a thousand islands of summer idleness. Nowhere can be found better short water trips than along this wonderful river and on the waters of Lake Ontario. The shortest portage from salt water is across New York to Buffalo. From this port the steamers of the Lake Superior Transit Company sail west through Lake Erie, past Detroit and through St. Clair lake and river, across Lake Huron, and northward through the "Soo" to Lake Superior, or by the Straits of Mackinac west and south through Lake Michigan. The longest voyage without change of boat is from Buffalo to Duluth, and takes about five days. It is perhaps the most notable and picturesque fresh water voyage in the world, and includes the passage of two rivers and three of the VOL. XXXVIII.-47.

Cleveland Navigation Company connect with steamers for ports on Lake Huron, with boats for Milwaukee and Chicago and other Lake Michigan ports, and also for ports on Lake Superior.

The steamships of the Lake Superior Transit Company have their eastern point of departure at Buffalo and go direct to Lake Superior and as far west as Duluth, giving a number of voyages over these unsalted seas, where the sea gull seems at home and the tingling breath of the plains sweeps over icy waters. So far this pleasure travel seems to have been confined to the people of Ohio, Pennsylvania, western New York, and Indiana. Lake Superior is only a geographical term to millions of our people, and the idea that there are splendid voyages in the Northwest will be new to thousands who travel west by rail. The shipyards at Cleveland and Buffalo turn out every year larger and larger steamers, which are in every respect sea-going crafts and as well adapted to their waters as any that steer along our coasts. The traffic through the ship canal at Sault Ste. Marie during the last season of seven months amounted to 6,419,273 tons, valued at

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$92,293,000, a tonnage exceeding that of the Suez Canal for a whole year. There is now a disposition to put on larger and finer boats for passenger service, and as facilities for business create business, there is reason to believe that there will be every year a larger number who voyage upon our great inland waters. If any man wishes to see a peculiar and interesting part of the country, and can for once forego this miserable desire to "get on," let him steer west from Buffalo or Cleveland for any of the lake ports beyond Detroit. The voyage can be made long or short, for one day or for five, for there are railroad connections at every large port, and one may return to the cars and discomfort at almost every hour of the longest voyage. If wise he will stay by the ship and

learn more of the country than ever can be learned from a car window.

Westward, on the Pacific coast, notable voyages can be made both south and north that will give a great variety of climate and coast scenery. Steamers now make excursions from Tacoma, Washington Territory, to Alaska, giving a round trip of eleven days past a coast rivaling in scenery anything in Norway and making it possible to see the glaciers meet the sea in Alaska fiords.

The writer in visiting London for the first time, many years ago, took an early opportunity to try a voyage by the penny boats on the Thames. The experience was discouraging. The boats were simply long decked canoes of iron, with a little engine in the middle, and with

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no shelter whatever for the passengers packed like sheep on the bare deck. Several years after, a visit was again made to these boats to see if there had been any improvement. There was none. The same burly captains stood on the paddle-boxes waving their hands to the helmsmen, who stood where they could see nothing ahead; the same boys screamed to the engineers to "stop 'er, back 'er"; the same uncomfortable seats for but a fifth of the passengers; the same wretched crowds on the cheerless deck suffocated by the smoke and pelted by the rain. On asking one of the captains why his company did not put on better boats when they built new ones, a singular answer was given: "What 's the good o' improvin' the boats when we 've got the old patterns?" Here is just the difference between the American and the European boatbuilder. The patterns make the smallest item in the cost of an iron vessel, yet to save a fraction of a penny in the pound the English builders sometimes forego all attempts at improvements. It is

ships have been recently added to our coastwise fleets, while in the West some excellent new boats have been placed on the more popular river routes.

In considering these boats, the Western river boats deserve attention because they are the most distinctively American and because they surmount more difficulties of navigation than are ever encountered by deep water crafts. On another page is an ideal section of a river boat showing the proportions of the hull to the "tophamper." The waters are always shoal, particularly on the upper Ohio and Mississippi,

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safe to say that in this country the cost of patterns is seldom considered, for sister ships are not by any means common. The aim is always to make something better-to make every new boat faster, safer, more comfortable, or in some way better adapted to the waters it is to traverse or the traffic it is to serve. This independence of tradition, this continual seeking after improvement, is particularly noticeable just now, for within the past year or two a number of boats have been launched that for speed, capacity, and comfort, and for novelty and beauty of design, are worthy of careful attention. The older routes on the Sound are employing larger and finer boats, and the famous boats of the Hudson have increased in speed and comfort. A number of new and very large ferry-boats and transfer steamers have been built on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and on the lakes, and many new and very fine steam

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and the problem is to carry a great burden at good speed over these quiet yet treacherous waters. The boat must be broad, shallow, and flat. It sprung originally from a flatboat, and, like such a boat, its weights must be evenly distributed so that all parts may have an equal duty. The depth of hold, six to ten feet, seems very small for such a lofty structure; but the waters are smooth and the hull may be submerged with safety close up to the deck. In the stern-wheel boats the amount of overhang given to the deck is small because the aim seems to be to make a long and narrow boat in preference to a wide one. The section shows the position of the two engines, which are placed one on each side, at the extreme edge of the boat. If the boat has side-wheels, each wheel is independent, and is moved by a separate engine, so that the wheels can be used in steering. This is essential in our very crooked rivers and

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