Sometimes
A Little Screw-Vessel Of Fifteen Or Twenty Tons May Be Seen To Hurry,
Puffing And Panting, Up To A Large Vessel And Drag It Down To The Sea; But
Generally One Paddle-Tug Takes Six Vessels Down, Four Being Towed Behind
And One Or Two Lashed On Either Side.
As both steamers and sloops are
painted white, and the sails are perfectly dazzling in their purity, and
twenty, thirty, and forty of these flotillas may be seen in the course of
a morning, the Hudson river presents a very animated and unique
appearance.
It is said that everybody loses a portmanteau at Albany: I was
more fortunate, and left it without having experienced the slightest
annoyance.
On the other side of the ferry a very undignified scramble takes place for
the seats on the right side of the cars, as the scenery for 130 miles is
perfectly magnificent. "Go ahead" rapidly succeeded "All aboard," and we
whizzed along this most extraordinary line of railway, so prolific in
accidents that, when people leave New York by it, their friends frequently
request them to notify their safe arrival at their destination. It runs
along the very verge of the river, below a steep cliff, but often is
supported just above the surface of the water upon a wooden platform.
Guide-books inform us that the trains which run on this line, and the
steamers which ply on the Hudson, are equally unsafe, the former from
collisions and "upsets," the latter from "bustings-up;" but most people
prefer the boats, from the advantage of seeing both sides of the river.
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