e island is connected
by a roadway across a tongue of land which separates the North from
the South Bay. Above this island east of the steamer's channel across
the railway of the _New York Central_, we see a historic bit of water
known as--

=The North Bay.= It was here that Robert Fulton developed his
steamboat invention, receiving pecuniary aid from Chancellor
Livingston, and it is fitting to give at this place a concise account
of

=Steam Navigation=, which after many attempts and failures on both
sides of the Atlantic was at last crowned with success on the Hudson.

=John Fitch= first entertained his idea of a steamboat in 1785, and
sent to the general assembly of the State of Pennsylvania a model in
1786. New Jersey and Delaware in 1787, gave him exclusive right to
navigate their waters for fourteen years, which, however, was never
undertaken. His steamboat "Perseverance," on the Delaware in 1787, was
eighteen feet in length and six feet beam. The name, however, was a
misnomer, as it was abandoned. These facts appear by papers on file in
the State Library at Albany. After his experiment on the Delaware,
he traveled through France and England, but not meeting with the
encouragement that he expected, became poor and returned home, working
his passage as a common sailor. In 1797 he constructed a little boat
which was propelled by steam in the old Collect Pond, New York, below
Canal Street, between Broadway and the East River.

* * *

Exactly one hundred years separate the first paddle-boat
of Papin from the first steamboat of Fulton.

_Victor Hugo._

* * *

According to records in the State Library, the steam was sufficiently
high to propel the boat once, twice, or thrice around the pond. "When
more water being introduced into the boiler or pot and steam was
generated, she was again ready to start on another expedition." The
boat was a yawl about eighteen feet in length and six feet beam. She
was started at the buoy with a small oar when the propeller was used.
The boiler was a ten or twelve gallon iron pot. This boat with a
portion of the machinery was abandoned by Fitch, and left to decay on
the muddy shore. Shortly after this he died in Kentucky in 1798. Had
he lived, or, had the fortune like Fulton, to find such a patron as
Livingston, his success might have been assured. His visit to Europe
may have inspired Symington's experiment on Dalswinton Loch in 1788,
which made five m