able was
stretched out with prodigious labor, and lay there looking like a
gigantic serpent. The two hundred men ranged themselves along the line
at regular intervals, and at a given signal hoisted the burden to
their shoulders. At the word of command, all stepped off briskly
together, and the long line wound along the narrow path through the
forests. They started out cheerily enough, enlivening the work with
songs and jests; but at the end of the first mile all were glad enough
to throw down the load, and loiter a while by the roadside. A few
minutes' rest, and up and on again. Now arms began to ache, and
shoulders to chafe, under the unusual burden; but the march continued
until noon of the next day, when the footsore and weary carriers
marched proudly into Sackett's Harbor, to find sailors and soldiers
assembled to greet them with bands and cannon-firing. In accordance
with the custom of the time, these demonstrations of honor were
supplemented by the opening of a barrel of whiskey, in honor of the
arrival of the cable.

This incident, trivial in itself, is typical of that ingenuity and
fertility of resource, which, more than any thing else, contributed
to the success of the Americans, not only in the lake operations of
the war of 1812, but in every war the nation has since undertaken. But
the advantages gained by Yankee enterprise and ingenuity were,
perhaps, more evident in the operations on Lake Ontario and Lake Erie
than in the operations of the armies, or of the fleets upon the ocean.
The great contest lay more in the rapid building of ships than in
fighting them. At the outset the enemy were better equipped for the
struggle than were the Americans. The Canadian frontier had been
longer settled, and could lend more men to the needs of the nation.
More than this, the route to the ocean by the St. Lawrence River made
it really easier to transport naval stores from far-off Liverpool to
the British naval station on the shores of Lake Ontario, than to carry
like goods across the wooded hills of New York. Nor were the British
altogether without naval resources upon the lakes at the hour when war
was declared. On Lake Erie the English flag waved over the "Royal
George," twenty-two; "Prince Regent," sixteen; "Earl of Moira,"
fourteen; "Gloucester," ten; "Seneca," eight; and "Simcoe," eight.
Opposed to this squadron was but one United States vessel,--the
"Oneida," a man-of-war brig carrying sixteen twenty-four-pound
ca