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Show CHAPTER XXXIII. RETURN ON THE ERIE CANAL AND THE RIVER HUDSON TO NEW YORK.--VOYAGE TO EUROPE. The Erie Canal-Lockfort-Rochester-Perinton on the Irondequot-Clyde-Montezuma Marches-The River Seneca -Syracuse-Saline Tract near Salina-Remains of the Onondago Nation-Onondago Hill-Manlius-Canastote- Oneida - Remains of the Oneida Nation -Verona-New London-Rome - Oriskany - Beautiful Valley of the Mohawk River-White's Town-Utica-German Flats-Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Schenectady-The Iron Railroad to Albany-Hudson River-New York-Voyage to Europe. Early in the morning of the 1st of July we left the Eagle Hotel, at Niagara, and travelled twelve miles to Tonowanta, where we found a packet boat, towed by three horses, on board which we embarked about noon. The boats on the Erie Canal are much the same as those on the Ohio Canal; but here they are fitted up only for passengers, and take no goods on board, except their baggage; hence they are more convenient, lighter, and more rapid than luggage boats. Our boat had fourteen or sixteen berths, which were very commodiously arranged. The horses drawing these boats are always on the trot, and they perform a distance of 104 miles in twenty-four hours. Twelve hundred such boats navigate this canal, the original cost of which was 700,000 dollars; whereas that of the Ohio Canal was only 400,000. This great work was commenced in 1817, and completed in eight years. We proceeded first on the Tonowanta River as far as the village of Pentleton, where we entered the canal. About five miles from this place it is cut through a stratum of grauwacke, which rises from four to fifteen feet above the water; but the depth of the ravine soon increases, and the bridges are thrown, at a great height, over the canal. At Lockfort, an extensive place, situated on the eminence, the canal is conducted, by means of five sluices, down a slope of at least sixty feet. The prospect from the eminence is very beautiful. The canal descends between two hills, connected at a considerable elevation by a bridge, under which the boats pass. On the following day t ¦ |