The prosperity of the partners, as already intimated, was shortlived. Audubon was doubtless right in admitting that his business abandoned him because he could not bear to give it the necessary attention. The conditions of life for the merchant-trader at that early day were at best far from easy, and an honest success, as then understood, required not only plenty of rough work but careful planning as well. His goods, purchased in the East, were laboriously transported across the State of Pennsylvania, and if they came from Philadelphia they must needs traverse the rough wagon roads that led through Bedford to Pittsburgh. There was an overland trail from Pittsburgh to Kentucky, but merchants with heavy loads would naturally take the easier river route. In going east to renew his stock in trade, it was a common practice to travel on horseback from as far west as St. Louis, but on returning the merchant would often sell his mount at Baltimore, Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, where a boat could be taken for the remainder of the journey. The "ark" or flatboat was considered most convenient for the transportation of either passengers or merchandise down the Ohio, for any well-to-do traveler, while floating leisurely with the current, could make himself comfortable by fitting up snug sleeping quarters and a kitchen on deck, and could go ashore at will, with the certainty of satisfying his appetite for wild turkey, venison and other game in the season. Wilson, who descended the river in April, 1810, boarded and passed many of these "arks," which he described as built in the form of a parallelogram, from twelve to fourteen feet wide and from forty to seventy feet long, with a canopy to protect them from the weather; they were casually helped along by means of two oars in the bow, and steered by another and more powerful one in the stern. "Several of these floating caravans," said Wilson, "were loaded with store goods for the supply of the settlements through which they passed, having a counter erected, shawls, muslins," and the like, "displayed, and everything ready for transacting business. On approaching a settlement they blew a tin trumpet, which announced to the inhabitants their arrival." These "arks," he added, descended from all parts of the Ohio and its tributary streams, but in greatest numbers in the spring months. Although they cost originally about $1.50 per foot of length, when arrived at their destination they would seldom bring more than one-sixth of that amount. From forty to fifty days were commonly required to cover the entire distance of two thousand miles from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.