Four o’clock in the afternoon found us safely on board the “Anglo-Saxon,” a fine new steam-boat, bound for Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.  We booked ourselves for Cincinnati in Ohio, a distance of 1,550 miles.  The fare was 12 dollars each; and the captain said we should be from six to ten days in getting to our destination. (We were, however, twelve days.) Twelve dollars, or about 2_l._ 10_s._, for the occupation of splendid apartments, sitting down at a well-furnished table, and being conveyed 1,550 miles!  Scarcely believing that there was not some mistake, I asked a fellow-passenger if the 12 dollars really did include board, and was told that most certainly it did,—­it was the regular fare.  Travelling at this rate was literally cheaper than staying at home.  It was just one dollar a day each for food, lodgings, and locomotion!  This “Anglo-Saxon”—­forge below and palace above, as all these boats appear to be—­is a noble vessel.  The dimensions, as given me by the “clerk” or purser, are—­length of keel 182 feet, breadth of beam 26 feet, depth of hull 6 feet, length of cabin 140 feet; two engines 6-1/2 feet stroke; two cylinders 18-1/2 inches in diameter; height between decks 9-1/2 feet; having a fire-engine and hose; berth accommodation for 73 cabin-passengers, but often has more.  Unexpectedly, we had got on board the only temperance vessel on the river—­the only one that kept no “bar.”  It belonged chiefly to Quakers.  The captain and the clerk, both part-proprietors, had married sisters.  The engineer also was connected with them by marriage.  These circumstances encouraged the hope that we had fallen into good steady hands, who would do all in their power to avoid explosion.

The number of steam-boats which puff, and groan, and paddle up and down the Mississippi, is amazing,—­probably not fewer than 1,200.  Only in the year 1812 was the first seen on these western waters!  The view of a long range of these splendid vessels lying against the landing-place is magnificent.  Though not very substantial, they are extremely showy.  Lightness of construction and elegance of accommodation are chiefly studied.  The “Anglo-Saxon” is not by any means one of the largest class.  These vessels are doubtless well adapted for their purpose as river boats; in the sea, they could do nothing but capsize and sink.

In no portion of the globe should the invention of steam-boats be more highly appreciated than in the valley of the Mississippi; for nowhere else has the triumph of art over the obstacles of nature been more complete.  But for this gigantic application of the power of steam, thousands of boatmen would have been slowly and laboriously warping, and rowing, and poling, and cordelling their boats, in a three months’ trip up this mighty stream, which (thanks to Watt) is now ascended in ten days.  This “go-a-head” country advances more in five years with steam-boats, than it could have done in fifty without them.  The principal points in the Ohio and the Mississippi, which nature had separated by distances and other obstacles more formidable than attend the crossing of the Atlantic, art has brought into practical juxtaposition.