The
illustrations given of English canoes are from
imported models, and are perfect of their type.
CHAPTER VI. TROY TO PHILADELPHIA.
PAPER CANOE MARIA THERESA. - THE START. - THE DESCENT
OF THE HUDSON RIVER. - CROSSING THE UPPER BAY OF NEW
YORK. - PASSAGE OF THE KILLS. - RARITAN RIVER - THE
CANAL ROUTE FROM NEW BRUNSWICK TO THE DELAWARE
RIVER. - FROM BORDENTOWN TO PHILADELPHIA.
My canoe of the English "Nautilus" type
was completed by the middle of October;
and on the cold, drizzly morning of the 21st of
the same month I embarked in my little
fifty-eight pound craft from the landing of the
paper-boat manufactory on the river Hudson, two miles
above Troy. Mr. George A. Waters put his
own canoe into the water, and proposed to
escort me a few miles down the river. If I
had any misgivings as to the stability of my
paper canoe upon entering her for the first time,
they were quickly dispelled as I passed the
stately Club-house of the Laureates, which
contained nearly forty shells, all of paper.
The dimensions of the Maria Theresa were:
length, fourteen feet; beam, twenty-eight inches;
depth, amidships, nine inches; height of bow
from horizontal line, twenty-three inches; height
of stern, twenty inches.
