Every
passenger paid $7, for which he had dinner, tea and bed, breakfast and
dinner, with the liberty to carry 200 pounds of baggage.

* * *

The stars are on the running stream,
And fling, as its ripples gently flow,
A burnished length of wavy-beam
In an eel-like, spiral line below.

_Joseph Rodman Drake._

* * *

An original letter from Robert Fulton to the minister of Bavaria at
the court of France, written in 1809, upon the question of putting
steamboats on the Danube, is of interest at the present day: "The
distance from New York to Albany is 160 miles; the tide rises as far
as Albany; its velocity is on an average 11/2 miles an hour.

"We thus have the tide half the time in favor of the boat and half the
time against her. The boat is 100 feet long, 16 feet wide and 7 feet
deep; the steam engine is of the power of 20 horses; she runs 41/2
miles an hour in still water. Consequently when the tide is 11/2
miles an hour in her favor she runs 53/4 miles an hour. When the
tide is against her she runs 23/4 miles an hour. Thus in theory her
average velocity is 41/4 miles an hour, but in practice we take
advantage of the currents. When they are against us we keep near shore
in the eddies, where the current is weak or the eddy in our favor;
when the tide is in our favor we take the centre of the stream and
draw every advantage from it. In this way our average speed is 5 miles
an hour, and we run to Albany, 160 miles, in about 32 hours." Previous
to the invention of the steamboat there were two modes of conveyance.
One was by the common sloops; they charged 42 francs, and were on the
average four days in making the passage--they have sometimes been as
long as eight days. The dread of such tedious voyages prevented great
numbers of persons from going in sloops. The second mode of conveyance
was the mail, or stage. They charged $8, or 44 francs, and the
expenses on the road were about $5, or 30 francs, so that expenses
amounted to $13. The time required was 48 hours. The steamboat has
rendered the communication between New York and Albany so cheap and
certain that the number of passengers are rapidly increasing. Persons
who live 150 miles beyond Albany know the hour she will leave that
city, and making their calculations to arrive at York, stay two
days to transact business, return with the boat, and are with their
families in one week. The facility has rendered the boat a great
favorite wi