however, too strong for the rowers, and when the other side of
the river has been reached, it has drifted perhaps a quarter of a
mile. The men are by this time exhausted and, as we shall suppose
it to be 12 o'clock, fasten the boat to a tree on the shore. A
small glass of whiskey is given to each, when they cook and eat
their dinner and, after resting from their fatigue for an hour,
recommence their labors. The boat is again seen slowly advancing
against the stream. It has reached the lower end of a sandbar,
along the edge of which it is propelled by means of long poles,
if the bottom be hard. Two men, called bowsmen, remain at the
prow to assist, in concert with the steersman, in managing the
boat and keeping its head right against the current. The rest
place themselves on the land side of the footway of the vessel,
put one end of their poles on the ground and the other against
their shoulders and push with all their might. As each of the men
reaches the stern, he crosses to the other side, runs along it
and comes again to the landward side of the bow, when he
recommences operations. The barge in the meantime is ascending at
a rate not exceeding one mile in the hour."

Trustworthy statistics as to the amount and character of the
Western river trade have never been gathered. They are to be
found, if anywhere, in the reports of the collectors of customs
located at the various Western ports of entry and departure.
Nothing indicates more definitely the hour when the West awoke
to its first era of big business than the demand for the creation
of "districts" and their respective ports, for by no other means
could merchandise and produce be shipped legally to Spanish
territory beyond or down the Mississippi or to English territory
on the northern shores of the Great Lakes.