July 1, 1834
At about nine o’clock we left the Niagara on the stage for Tonawanda and the Erie Canal. It is 12 miles from the Eagle Hotel at Niagara back to Tonawanda to reach the canal. A person pays 75 cents for this trip. The packet boat, with three horses hitched to it, arrived at Tonawanda after eleven o’clock, and we immediately went aboard.
At eleven o’clock [in the] midmorning, we boarded a canal packet boat. These boats have been mentioned already. They are furnished for passengers only and not for freight, [and] therefore the whole inner space is empty and divided into several quite nicely furnished cabins, [including] two rooms for ladies. The meals are taken in the large, or gentlemen’s, cabin. We could not take as much luggage as on the other boats.
Our boat had space for fourteen to sixteen beds that were arranged very efficiently. Many bedclothes lay on the always-present upholstered wall benches. The benches themselves can be folded out and form a long row of beds on each side. Above this lower tier, frames are attached in the evening on which two rows of beds above each other are made up. All are numbered, and every evening after dinner, the skipper, or captain, distributes the beds by following the sequence in which the passengers are recorded in the ship’s register. If someone goes from one boat to another, which happens repeatedly on this canal, then the [passengers] who have been longer on the boat always keep earlier numbers than the ones who come [aboard] after them. They are very strict about this.
On this Erie Canal (its construction cost the sum of 7 million dollars) 1,200 boats (some packets, some freight boats) [travel] up and down. The Ohio Canal is said to have cost only 4 million dollars. The difficult stonework was supposed to have been the cause [of the Erie Canal’s higher cost].
At the beginning of the journey, we followed the Tonawanda River [Creek], which is at first broad and has forest and cultivated fields on its [banks]. Many boats crossed here, a lively, pretty view! The bank is low and covered with reeds and water plants. The forest contains a great number of beech trees mixed with oaks, walnut trees, and the like. The white and the yellow Nymphaea bloomed on the bank, [and] a Typha [was seen]. The meadows were overgrown with rushes. Near Pendleton, a village, we left the Tonawanda and continued on the canal. Much cut timber and building timber is moved on the canal, [and there are] rafts—some [made] from thick trunks. About 5 miles from the village, the canal had to be cut through a bed of graywacke, at the beginning 4, [then] 5, 8, 10, [and] up to 15 feet above the water. The depth of this gorge increases quickly; bridges have been [built] high above. We noticed boreholes for blasting everywhere. [To this day], the rock walls stand mostly bare [and] rough; moss has hardly formed yet. On top, Rhus, elm, Salix, and other bushes grow. At its beginning, this rock passage is so narrow that two boats can scarcely get past each other. We next reached an area where we had a nice view toward Lockport. Before that place, we [had passed] a good number of bridges; beyond them appeared the houses of the [town]. Here the rock is more covered with leaves and liverwort, various grasses, and shrubs.
As soon as we approached a place, someone would blow a valved trumpet, a type of Kent horn [bugle], to invite those who wish to travel. We put ashore in the shadow of a high bridge with a very broad surface at Lockport; the passengers went ashore and others came aboard. The many bridges lend the place an original look. In this place, we had to climb down from a significant elevation, because Lockport is located on a summit at the slope and below a significant hill. Five locks have been constructed here to get the boats down. The summit is at least 60 feet high, [and] the view from it is very beautiful! The canal flows down between two high elevations. A bridge with extensive supporting woodwork extends through the air from one hill to the other above the gorge. The lower part of this important, large town at the side of the canal has scattered houses located in a low plain full of cut tree stumps. Some [of the stumps] are under water. Handsome buildings have been constructed along the canal, where large signs indicate the type of business carried on there. Numerous bridges cross the canal. They are painted white, with reddish brown or ash-gray support beams.
The sky was cloudy all day long, the heat oppressive; then it started to rain. Rubus odoratus bloomed nicely at the canal. Podophyllum grew here, and Trifolia, with red or white flowers, were the usual border of the bank. On its top grew the vermilion [——]. Soon we reached lovely beech forests, the tips of which had been frozen [in the winter] here too. About evening [we passed] Middleport, a scattered village; after a few hours, Noseville (village).