Through This
Doorway The Corn Runs Into A Measure, And Is Weighed.
By measures
of forty bushels each, the tale is kept.
There stands the
apparatus, with the figures plainly marked, over against the
porter's eye; and as the sum mounts nearly up to forty bushels he
closes the door till the grains run thinly through, hardly a
handful at a time, so that the balance is exactly struck. Then the
teller standing by marks down his figure, and the record is made.
The exact porter touches the string of another door, and the forty
bushels of corn run out at the bottom of the measure, disappear
down another shoot, slanting also toward the water, and deposit
themselves in the canal boat. The transit of the bushels of corn
from the larger vessel to the smaller will have taken less than a
minute, and the cost of that transit will have been - a farthing.
But I have spoken of the rivers of wheat, and I must explain what
are those rivers. In the working of the elevator, which I have
just attempted to describe, the two vessels were supposed to be
lying at the same wharf on the same side of the building, in the
same water, the smaller vessel inside the larger one. When this is
the case the corn runs direct from the weighing measure into the
shoot that communicates with the canal boat. But there is not room
or time for confining the work to one side of the building. There
is water on both sides, and the corn or wheat is elevated on the
one side, and reshipped on the other. To effect this the corn is
carried across the breadth of the building; but, nevertheless, it
is never handled or moved in its direction on trucks or carriages
requiring the use of men's muscles for its motion. Across the
floor of the building are two gutters, or channels, and through
these, small troughs on a pliable band circulate very quickly.
They which run one way, in one channel, are laden; they which
return by the other channel are empty. The corn pours itself into
these, and they again pour it into the shoot which commands the
other water. And thus rivers of corn are running through these
buildings night and day. The secret of all the motion and
arrangement consists, of course, in the elevation. The corn is
lifted up; and when lifted up can move itself and arrange itself,
and weigh itself, and load itself.
I should have stated that all this wheat which passes through
Buffalo comes loose, in bulk. Nothing is known of sacks or bags.
To any spectator at Buffalo this becomes immediately a matter of
course; but this should be explained, as we in England are not
accustomed to see wheat traveling in this open, unguarded, and
plebeian manner. Wheat with us is aristocratic, and travels always
in its private carriage.
Over and beyond the elevators there is nothing specially worthy of
remark at Buffalo. It is a fine city, like all other American
cities of its class. The streets are broad, the "blocks" are high,
and cars on tramways run all day, and nearly all night as well.
CHAPTER XII.
BUFFALO TO NEW YORK.
We had now before us only two points of interest before we should
reach New York - the Falls of Trenton, and West Point on the Hudson
River. We were too late in the year to get up to Lake George,
which lies in the State of New York north of Albany, and is, in
fact, the southern continuation of Lake Champlain. Lake George, I
know, is very lovely, and I would fain have seen it; but visitors
to it must have some hotel accommodation, and the hotel was closed
when we were near enough to visit it. I was in its close
neighborhood three years since, in June; but then the hotel was not
yet opened. A visitor to Lake George must be very exact in his
time. July and August are the months - with, perhaps, the grace of
a week in September.
The hotel at Trenton was also closed, as I was told. But even if
there were no hotel at Trenton, it can be visited without
difficulty. It is within a carriage drive of Utica, and there is,
moreover, a direct railway from Utica, with a station at the
Trenton Falls. Utica is a town on the line of railway from Buffalo
to New York via Albany, and is like all the other towns we had
visited. There are broad streets, and avenues of trees, and large
shops, and excellent houses. A general air of fat prosperity
pervades them all, and is strong at Utica as elsewhere.
I remember to have been told, thirty years ago, that a traveler
might go far and wide in search of the picturesque without finding
a spot more romantic in its loveliness than Trenton Falls. The
name of the river is Canada Creek West; but as that is hardly
euphonious, the course of the water which forms the falls has been
called after the town or parish. This course is nearly two miles
in length; and along the space of this two miles it is impossible
to say where the greatest beauty exists. To see Trenton aright,
one must be careful not to have too much water. A sufficiency is
no doubt desirable; and it may be that at the close of summer,
before any of the autumnal rains have fallen, there may
occasionally be an insufficiency. But if there be too much, the
passage up the rocks along the river is impossible. The way on
which the tourist should walk becomes the bed of the stream, and
the great charm of the place cannot be enjoyed. That charm
consists in descending into the ravine of the river, down amid the
rocks through which it has cut its channel, and in walking up the
bed against the stream, in climbing the sides of the various falls,
and sticking close to the river till an envious block is reached
which comes sheer down into the water and prevents farther
progress.
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