Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1882-12-09

oAko1A's CREEK.

DAkOTKs CREEK.
Tho Steamboat Business on the Missouri
Has Not Been Particularly Profitable this
year.
st. Paul Pioneer-Press.
The season Of steamboatinR on tho
Missouri river above Bismarck, recently
closed, has been greater success than
ever before. SO far as trips and tonnage
are concerned, but the owners of boats
again claim balance on the wrong side
of the ledger, and scan the figures with
anything but satisfactory air. It is an
open secret that rates have been low.
The different lines have been willing to
give rates which were as far as possible
from Giving" ones if they could only
beat a rival line, and war OF very re-
tapis throughout the season. OF course
shippers have profited, and the hearts % Of
the far-of traders are glad within them.
1t was predicted last year that the com.
pletion of the Northern Pacific to Glen
dive and beyond would he o disastrous
If not fatal blow to steamboatinp on Che
Missouri, and wonld run every boat. ont
of the Yellowstone. As to the first river.
the appended figures show the prediction
to have been unfulfIled. As to the Iat-
ter it was largely true. but this is due in
some measure to natural rather than
constructive causes. The Yellowstone
has never been safe stream to count
upon. Like its tributary, the Big Horn,
when the melting SHOWS in the mighty
canons of Montana and Wyoming swell
its floods, it is deep enough and wide
enough to float navy, but the very cur
rent which renders all the power a boat
has necessary for its stemming, empties
the stream 80 soon that boat NAV 20
up on unbounded water and ground on
her own nose on the return trip. Gov
ernment work has helped the navigabil-
ity in measure, but it would be hard to
find an experienced captain or pilot who
would class the Yellowstone among the
grent transportation arteries benefcently
ordained to keep down the rates of trans
portation by competing with o railway.
With the Missouri it is different, and
the work by government engineers has
resulted in such positive good that the
most captious are forced to acknowledge
it. The river has never been as low as
last season. The low water mark was
sunk four inches below that of any pre-.
vious year since the river was guaged,
and notwithstanding this the trips have
been more frequent for the number Of
boats engaged, greater tonnage to the
vessel has been possible, and far off
Fort Benton has been reached oftener
than ever before. Posted river men as
crlbe these results largely to the gov
ernmental work done between Cow Is
land and Fort Claggett, where the stream
is little better than succession of rap.
ids which, at low water, was formerly
next to impossible. The June rise
came as usual, of course, but it was
neither as heavy nor as long continued
as usual, and by the middle of Au.
gust the huge spars and
the. creaking niger engines were
again in constant requisition. The fuel
supply has been excellent in quality and
quantity, and the price has been low
enough to suit even clerk on a single
stacker. The way traffic-not included
IN the figures given below-has grown
into dimensions which astonish passen-
gers of few years ago, when shack in
the course of days run and solitary
post every few hundred miles were the
only signs of white inhabitants, though
OF red riparians there was no lack, and
bullet holes in pilot house were then
as plenty as the sight of Sioux along
the bank IS, nowadays, rare. Bismarck
and Mandan, opposite, are now points oi
departure in the spring, so that the first
boat IS sent cut on or about the same
date every year, and not, as formerly
after it mad finished the hundreds oj
miles between these points and st. Louis
or Pittsburg. The season of 1882 saw q
fleet of twenty-five steamers ready
for the Missouri and the Vel.
lowstone river traffic, the latter, as before
stated, scarcely counting, so slight was Il
rs compared with the aggregate. The
Eclipse was the first boat of the seasor
to pull out for up river, which she die
April 10, number following in the day,
Immediately succeeding. The close O.
navigation is usually from the lst to the
10Th of November, and this year tn,
Butte arrived from above and went intt
winter quarters November 10, the las
until 1888. During the season ther,
were eighty-six departures and eighty
five arrivals from and at Bismarck, anc
only two trips oil told were made on th,
Yellowstone. At Fort Benton, the heat
of navigation and more than 1900 miles
above Bismarck, there were forty arriv
ais during the season-an unusual nun
Der, and fully attesting the excellent eff
feet of the government work
The Benton boats, too, notwithstanding
the generally low water, were abb,
to take much heavier freights tina:
usual, and this ability, as may easil,
be imagined, is an important facto
in transportation covering so long an,
tortuous a course. Only one boat cam
to grief, but this was the Red Cloud, on,
of the largest and handsomest, whicl
struck submerged stump near Bouche'
grave, about sixty miles from Fort Peck
and sunk almost instantly. The boa
was total loss. A large part of the carg,
was saved. The total value of the twen
ty-two boats was S493, 900, and the agere
gate tonnage, S,400, custom house meas
urement
The following table of freights carrie,
up stream from Bismarck may be reliet
upon as absolutely correct, and it is til,
first one of the kind ever published s,
soon after the close of navigation:
Boats. Priv. rrt| Gov. Ers Total
4 Ponnds Pounds pnnpI.