The West: Its Commerce and Navigation

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H.W. Derby & Company, 1848 - 328 páginas
 

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Página 48 - The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory, as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor.
Página 117 - The proprietor of these boats, having maturely considered the many inconveniences and dangers incident to the common method hitherto adopted of navigating the Ohio, and being influenced by a love of philanthropy and a desire of being serviceable to the public, has taken great pains to render the accommodations on board the boats as agreeable and convenient as they could possibly be made.
Página 121 - And how touching is the sentiment found in one of his journals : — " the day will come when some more powerful man, will get fame and riches from my invention ; but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can do any thing worthy of attention.
Página 120 - ... with proper exactness. Fitch became embarrassed with debt, and was obliged to abandon the invention, after having satisfied himself of its practicability. This ingenious man, who was probably the first inventor of the steamboat, wrote three volumes, which he deposited in manuscript, sealed up, in the Philadelphia library, to be opened thirty years after his death. When or why he came to the West we have not learned ; but it is recorded of him, that he died and was buried near the Ohio.
Página 131 - Ohio thought himself lucky if the reckless boatmen would give the smallest trifle for the eggs and chickens which formed almost the only saleable articles on a soil whose only fault is its too great fertility. Such was the case twelve years since. The Mississippi boats now make five...
Página 60 - From 1822 to 1827 the loss of property on the Ohio and Mississippi, by snags alone, including steam and flat boats, and their cargoes, amounted to $1,362,500. The...
Página 180 - ... the largest proportion Were emigrants. They were mostly deck passengers, many of whom were poor Germans, ignorant of any language but their own, and the larger portion consisted of families, comprising. persons of all ages. Although not a large boat, there were eightyfive passengers in the cabin, which was a much larger number than could be comfortably accommodated; the number of deck passengers is not exactly known, but...
Página 13 - ... country. They have cheerfully encountered obstacles from which a less resolute body of men would have shrunk in despair ; and have won the fruitful fields which they possess through toils and dangers such as rarely fall to the lot of the husbandman. But without detracting from the merits of either of these classes, what would this country have been now, without commerce ? Suppose its rural population had been left to struggle with the wilderness, without the aid of the...
Página 255 - ... miles. Considering the Missouri as one river from its sources to the Gulf of Mexico, it is the longest in the world. Its average rapidity is nearly twice that of the Mississippi, as the average level of its valley is nearly twice more elevated than that of the Mississippi. The first year a steamboat navigated the Missouri was 1819. The following is an exhibit of the number of steamboats engaged in the trade of that river from 1 833 to 1846:— Year.
Página 120 - ... of the Mississippi, but without any better success. At length a company was formed, and funds subscribed for the building of a steamboat, and in the year 1788, his vessel was launched on the Delaware. Many crowded to see and ridicule the novel, and, as they supposed, the chimerical experiment. If It seemed that the idea of wheels had not occurred to Mr. Fitch; but instead of them, oars were used, which worked in frames.

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