Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-09-28
EARLY TRANSFORMATION.

EARLY TRANSPORTATION.
 Ths Chief Means of Conveyanos in the Early Days of tho West
 In the Magazine of American History is
 an article on "Early Transportation in the West-the First and Latest Steamer on Lake Erie" by MT. D. ". Manchester, sec rotary of the Cleveland Historical Society.
 Primitive transportation was crude and laborious. On this point Mr. Manchester says:
 Before the discovery and development of the great mining and lumber industries of the West, or the demands of commerce had rendered possible the facilities of modern
 transportation, the chief means of convey ance was the birch bark canoe and pony of the Indian. The carrying capacity of each was enormous and somethin wonderful With canoes sometimes six feet wide and thirty-hve feet long, sixty packs of furs, each pack weighing . hundred pounds: . thousand pounds of provisions, sufficient for crew of eight or ten men, in addition to bark and gum for repairs, the early tray eler and explorer tells us was not an un-
 usual load down the Great Lakes to Quebec and as far as Albany. Of
 course transportation in this way
 was necessarily slow, because these canoes were so slight and fragile that when
 loaded they could not withstand rough
 weather, nor approach . rough beach. In
 the latter event, freight and canoe wero
 backed" around . portage, reloaded and
 the journey resumed. A very convenient
 and useful trading boat was the Mackinaw
 oateau. It was built of oak or pine boards,
 had Hat bottoms, shaped tho same at each end and had high sides. The pirouge was a
 long canoe frequently made of large red
 cedar tree with high sides and ends, and
 was used mainly for passengers, carrying
 about eight persons. A canoe in commonl use was called ''dug-out i" because 1t wasi made by chopping, digging and burning outl the trunkof tree. Some of the trees werel enormous and capacious, but 1t requiredl great skill and experience to successfully manage canoe thus constructed, a slight lateral motion or unsteady position being sufficient to capsize it. Little wonder that the Indian was erect and straight as an arrow" He spent much of his time, too, inj the midst of tall, straight trees.
 In his famous expedition to the upper! lakes in 1890, Governor Cass employed ca noes for transportation. This expedition, at the time it was made, was the most i'm portant, taken in all, that had ever been un-I dertaken with the sanction and authority of the general Government. The objects pri- mar1y were an examination into the con- d1tion of the Indian tribes who occupied that country, and to procure the extinction of Indian titles to the land about the straits or St. Mary's, Prairie du Chien and Green Bay and to open up communication between the two latter points. The expedition also had in contemplation a thorough per region in the vicinity of Lake Superior. Much has been heard of this section through. indians and half-breeds, who said largei mass of virgin ore, weighing several tons. nad 1al1en from hill; specimens had been sent to Washington, and in 1900 Mr. Tracy, Senator from Connecticut, had been dis patched to make an examination, but he proceeded no further than Mackinaw. Governor Cass also intimated that 1t would be well to consider the natural history of the country through which the expedition would pass, and accordingly made request that the Government send some person who was acquainted with zoology, botany and mineralogy. For the latter position, the ex- petition was fortunate in having Henry R. !! Schoolcraft. since of wide celebrity and; greatness in many respects, especially as an author, and deservedly so as the writer on ethnological researches respecting the Indians of North America. Other promi- nent members of the party, besides Cover nor Cass, were Captain D. B. Douglass, professor of engineering at West Point; Alexander Wolcot, M D. Lieutenant Evans Mackey, D. s. artillery; James Doty, official secretary, and Charles Trowbridge, assist ant topographer. There were also ten United States soldie rs as escort, ten Indians to act as hunters, two interpreters and ten Canadian voyageurs to manage the canoes Forty-one in all in four birch-bark canoes. They reached Mackinaw in fourteen days, al distance ot three hundred and sixty miles from Detroit, the starting point, which they left the 24th of May. General Cassl reached this place on his return the 10th of September following, having travelled al- most entirely by canoe over four thousand miles.
 In early times in the West the horse alsol played prominent part in the transporta- tion of persons and freight. The French or Indian pony was indispensable to thel fur-trader and Indian in getting their fursi and peltries to points where they could bel transported to canoes or bateaux, and the| immense load of buffalo and other skins that these small animals would carry is astonishing. They wore very hardy, and have been known to travel under the saddle sixty to seventy miles a day for many sue cessive days. It Is not quite clear whom thei larger, modern horses were first used inl the West, but they are reported to havel been brought from Fort Duquesne to De. troit immediately following the defeat of. General Braddock, in 1755, but 1t is prob able that they were there much earlier, as Cadillac, who founded Detroit in July, 1701, without doubt had them. and in g grant of land from him to Joseph Parent, in 17O8, there was condition that the latter was to keep Cadillac's horses shod. They were, however, not plenty, and often there was only one horse for two or three persons, in which case the ''ride and tie'' method was adopted in journeying-which was that one person would ride few miles, when he would dismount, tic the horse and pro- ceed on foot. The next one who came along would take the horse, ride on ahead of the
 first and tic the horse. This rested both man and beast and fairly good progress