Steam-Boats on the Canal

Steam-Boats on the Canal. - We think there can no longer be any doubt as to the practicability of propelling boats on the Canal by steam. Since the passage of the steam-boat mentioned in our last, we have been gratified with a view of one built at Pompey, Onondaga county, by Messrs. Avery and Scovell, upon an improved construction, the machinery of which is much less complicated than any hitherto introduced.

The experiments already made have entirely removed the objections long urged, that the action of the wheels would create so much commotion in the water as to destroy the banks of the Canal. It is the opinion of competent judges that a boat may be propelled in this way, at the rate of six or eight miles an hour, without any injury to the Canal whatever; and besides being much cheaper and better, in many other respects, than the present mode, it would supersede the use of those valuable animals which are daily destroyed by fatigue in towing boats on the canal.