causes towns, with their masses of brick and stone, their churches
and theatres, their business and hubbub, their luxury and
refinement, their gay dames and polished citizens, to spring up,
till in time the wondrous stream may flow between two continuous
lines of buildings, through one thronged street, from Buffalo to
Albany. I embarked about thirty miles below Utica, determining to
voyage along the whole extent of the canal at least twice in the
course of the summer.

Behold us, then, fairly afloat, with three horses harnessed to our
vessel, like the steeds of Neptune to a huge scallop-shell in
mythological pictures. Bound to a distant port, we had neither
chart nor compass, nor cared about the wind, nor felt the heaving of
a billow, nor dreaded shipwreck, however fierce the tempest, in our
adventurous navigation of an interminable mudpuddle; for a mudpuddle
it seemed, and as dark and turbid as if every kennel in the
land paid contribution to it. With an imperceptible current, it
holds its drowsy way through all the dismal swamps and unimpressive
scenery that could be found between the great lakes and the sea-
coast. Yet there is variety enough, both on the surface of the
canal and along its banks, to amuse the traveller, if an
overpowering tedium did not deaden his perceptions.

Sometimes we met a black and rusty-looking vessel, laden with
lumber, salt from Syracuse, or Genesee flour, and shaped at both
ends like a square-toed boot, as if it had two sterns, and were
fated always to advance backward. On its deck would be a square
hut, and a woman seen through the window at her household work, with
a little tribe of children who perhaps had been born in this strange
dwelling and knew no other home. Thus, while the husband smoked his