,
on horseback, arrived in time to assist in completing the second cabin in
the place.(412) Two travelers who walked from Upper Alton to Galena, in
January and February, 1826, had to camp out several nights, because no
residence was in reach. Much of the way no trail existed.(413) About 1827
it was common for men to go with teams of four yoke of oxen, and strong
canvas-covered wagons from southern Illinois to the lead regions. In those
regions they spent the summer in hauling from the mines to the furnaces or
from the furnaces to the place of shipment, usually Galena, and taking
back to the mines a load of supplies. In the fall the teamsters returned
to their homes, sometimes, in the early days, taking a load of lead to St.
Louis. These men lived in their wagons, and cooked their own food. The
oxen lived by browsing at night.(414)

Transportation rates can be only approximately given, because they varied
with the condition of the weather or of the roads, and were frequently
agreed upon by a special bargain. In 1817 steamboats are said to have
descended the Ohio and the Mississippi at the rate of ten miles per hour,
and to have charged passengers six cents per mile. Freight, by steamboat,
from New Orleans to Shippingport (Falls of the Ohio), and thence by boats
to Zanesville, was about $6.50 per 100 pounds.(415) It took about one
month to make the trip from New Orleans to Shawneetown--June 6 to July 10
in a specific case. Nine-tenths of the trade was still carried on in the
old style--by flat-boats, barges, pirogues, etc.(416) In December, 1817,
freight from Shawneetown to Louisville was $1.12-1/2 per hundred weight; to
New Orleans, $1.00; to Pittsburg, $3.50; to Shawneetown from Pittsburg,
$1.00; from Louisville, $0.37-1/2; from New Orleans, $4.50. The great
difference between the rates up stream and those down stream was due to
the difficulty of going against the current.(417) Cobbett estimated that
Birkbeck's settlement, fifty miles north of Shawneetown, could be reached
from the eastern seaboard for five pounds sterling per person.(418) In
1819, the passenger rate, by steamboat, from New Orleans to Shawneetown,
was $110; the freight rate $0.04-1/2 to $0.06 per pound, the high charges
being attributed to a lack of competition, which the many new boats then
building were expected to remedy.(419) A party of nine people with
somewhat more than six thousand pounds of luggage, wishing to start from
Baltimore for Illinois, i