to port; and the Philadelphia, of 300 tons, made the passage in 9 days 9^
hours, the computed distance being 1650 miles. These are the quickest
trips made. There are now in operation on the waters west of the Alleghany
Mountains 140 or 145 boats. We had last spring (1826), a very
high freshet, which came 4£ feet deep in the counting-room. The rise was
57 feet 3 inches perpendicular.'"
The whole of the steam-boats of which you have an account did not
perform voyages to New Orleans only, but to all points on the Mississippi,
and other rivers which fall into it. I am certain that since the
above date the number has increased, but to what extent I cannot at
present say.
When steam-boats first plied between Shippingport and New Orleans,
the cabin passage was a hundred dollars, and a hundred and fifty dollars
on the upward voyage. In 1829, I went down to Natchez from Shippingport
for twenty-five dollars, and ascended from New Orleans on board
the Philadelphia, in the beginning of January 1830, for sixty dollars,
having taken two state-rooms for my wife and myself. On that voyage
we met with a trifling accident, which protracted it to fourteen days;
the computed distance being, as mentioned above, 1650 miles, although
the real distance is probably less. I do not remember to have spent a
day without meeting with a steam-boat, and some days we met several. I
might here be tempted to give you a description of one of these steamers
of the western waters, but the picture having been often drawn by abler
hands, I shall desist.
T H E CAROLINA PARROT.
PSITTACCUS CAR0LIXENS1S, LlNN.
P L A T E X X V I . M A L E , F E M A L E A N D Y O U N G .
D O U B T L E S S , kind reader, you will say, while looking at the seven
figures of Parakeets represented in the plate, that I spared not my labour.
I never do, so anxious am I to promote your pleasure.
These birds are represented feeding on the plant commonly named
the Cockle-bur. It is found much too plentifully in every State west of
the Alleghanies, and in still greater profusion as you advance towards
the Southern Districts. It grows in every field where the soil is good.
The low alluvial lands along the Ohio and Mississippi are all supplied
with it. Its growth is so measured that it ripens after the crops of grain
are usually secured, and in some rich old fields it grows so exceedingly
close, that to make one's way through the patches of it, at this late period,
is no pleasant task. The burs stick so thickly to the clothes, as to
prevent a person from walking with any kind of ease. The wool of
sheep is also much injured by them ; the tails and manes of horses are
converted into such tangled masses, that the hair has to be cut close off,
by which the natural beauty of these valuable animals is impaired. To
this day, no useful property has been discovered in the Cockle-bur, although
in time it may prove as valuable either in medicine or chemistry as
many other plants that had long been considered of no importance.
Well, reader, you have before you one of these plants, on the seeds
of which the parrot feeds. It alights upon it, plucks the bur from the
stem with its bill, takes it from the latter with one foot, in which it turns
it over until the joint is properly placed to meet the attacks of the bill,
when it bursts it open, takes out the fruit, and allows the shell to drop;
In this manner, a flock of these birds, having discovered a field ever so
well filled with these plants, will eat or pluck off all their seeds, returning
to the place day after day until hardly any are left. The plant
might thus be extirpated, but it so happens that it is reproduced from
the ground, being perennial, and our farmers have too much to do in securing
their crops, to attend to the pulling up the cockle-burs by the
roots, the only effectual way of getting rid of them.