Returning to Utica, I fell in with a horse bridled and saddled, that was
taking his way home without his master, every now and then cropping the
grass at the road-side, and then walking on in a most independent
manner. His master had given him a certificate of leave, by chalking in
large letters on the saddle-flaps on each side, "_Let him go_." This
was a very primitive proceeding; but I am not quite sure that it could
be ventured upon in Yorkshire, or in Virginia either, where they know a
good horse, and are particularly careful of it. It is a fact, that
wherever they breed horses they invariably learn to steal them.
Set off for Oswego in a canal boat; it was called a packet-boat because
it did not carry merchandise, but was a very small affair, about fifty
feet long by eight wide. The captain of her was, however, in his own
opinion, no small affair; he puffed and swelled until he looked larger
than his boat. This personage, as soon as we were under weigh, sat down
in the narrow cabin, before a small table; sent for this writing-desk,
which was about the size of street organ, and, like himself, no small
affair; ordered a bell to be rung in our ears to summon the passengers;
and, then, taking down the names of four or five people, received the
enormous sum of ten dollars passage-money. He then locked his desk with
a key large enough for a street-door, ordered his steward to remove it,
and went on deck to walk just three feet and return again. After all,
there is nothing like being a captain.
Although many of the boats are laid up, there is still considerable
traffic on this canal. We passed Rome, a village of two thousand
inhabitants, at which number it has for many years been nearly
stationary. This branch of the canal is, of course, cut through the
levels, and we passed through swamps and wild forests; here and there
some few acres were cleared, and a log-house was erected, looking very
solitary and forlorn, surrounded by the stumps of the trees which had
been felled, and which now lay corded up on the banks of the canal,
ready to be disposed of. Wild and dreary as the country is, the mass of
forest is gradually receding, and occasionally some solitary tree is
left standing, throwing out its wide arms, and appearing as if in
lamentation at its separation from its companions, with whom for
centuries it had been in close fellowship.
Extremes meet: as I looked down from the roof of the boat upon the
giants of the forest, which had for so many centuries reared their heads
undisturbed, but now lay prostrate before civilisation, the same
feelings were conjured up in my mind as when I have, in my wanderings,
surveyed such fragments of dismembered empires as the ruins of Carthage
or of Rome. There the reign of Art was over, and Nature had resumed her
sway--here Nature was deposed, and about to resign her throne to the
usurper Art. By the bye, the mosquitoes of this district have reaped
some benefit from the cutting of the canal here. Before these
impervious forest retreats were thus pierced, they could not have tasted
human blood; for ages it must have been unknown to them, even by
tradition; and if they taxed all other boats on the canal as they did,
ours, a _canal share_ with them must be considerably above par, and
highly profitable.
At five o'clock we arrived at Syracuse. I do detest these old names
vamped up. Why do not the Americans take the Indian names? They need
not be so very scrupulous about it; they have robbed the Indians of
everything else.
After you pass Syracuse, the country wears a more populous and inviting
appearance. Salina is a village built upon a salt spring, which has the
greatest flow of water yet known, and this salt spring is the cause of
the improved appearance of the country; the banks of the canal, for
three miles, are lined with buildings for the boiling down of the salt
water, which is supplied by a double row of wooden pipes. Boats are
constantly employed up and down the canal, transporting wood for the
supply of the furnaces. It is calculated that two hundred thousand cord
of wood are required every year for the present produce; and as they
estimate upon an average about sixty cord of wood per acre in these
parts, those salt works are the means of yearly clearing away upwards of
three thousand acres of land. Two million of bushels of salt are boiled
down every year: it is packed in barrels, and transported by the canals
and lakes to Canada, Michigan, Chicago, and the far West. When we
reflect upon the number of people employed in the manufactories, and in
cutting wood, and making barrels, and engaged on the lakes and canals in
transporting the produce so many thousand miles, we must admire the
spring to industry which has been created by this little, but bounteous,
spring presented by nature.
The first sixty miles of this canal (I get on very slow with my
description, but canal travelling is very slow), which is through a flat
swampy forest, is without a lock; but after you pass Syracuse, you have
to descend by locks to the Oswego river, and the same at every rapid of
the river; in all, there is a fall of one hundred and sixty feet.
Simple as locks are, I could not help reverting to the wild rapids at
Trenton Falls, and reflecting upon how the ingenuity of man had so
easily been able to overcome and control Nature! The locks did not
detain us long--they never lose time in America. When the boat had
entered the lock, and the gate was closed upon her, the water was let
off with a rapidity which considerably affected her level, and her bows
pointed downwards. I timed one lock with a fall of fifteen feet. From
the time the gate was closed behind us until the lower one was opened
for our egress, was exactly one minute and a quarter; and the boat sank
down in the lock so rapidly as to give you the idea that she was
scuttled and sinking.
The country round the Oswego is fertile and beautiful, and the river,
with its islands, falls, and rapids, very picturesque. At one p.m. we
arrived at the town of Oswego, on Lake Ontario; I was pleased with the
journey, although, what with ducking to bridges, bites from mosquitoes,
and the constant blowing of their unearthly horn with only one note, and
which one must have been borrowed from the gamut of the infernal
regions, I had had enough of it.
For the first time since my arrival in the country, no one--that is to
say, on board the canal-boat--knew who I was. As we tracked above the
Oswego river, I fell into conversation with a very agreeable person, who
had joined us at Syracuse. We conversed the whole day, and I obtained
much valuable information from him about the country: when we parted, he
expressed a wish that we should meet again. He gave me his name and
address, and when I gave my card in return, he looked at it, and then
said, "I am most happy to make your acquaintance, sir; but I will
confess that had I known with whom I had been conversing, I should not
have _spoken so freely_ upon certain points connected with the
government and institutions of this country." This was American all
over; they would conceal the truth, and then blame us because we do not
find it out. I met him afterwards, but he never would enter into any
detailed conversation with me.