Much use was made of the river, for the only roads were Indian paths through the woods on the river flats. People and freight were carried in long, light boats suited to river traffic and known as bateaux (bȧ-tō̟s´). These could be propelled with oars, but poles were necessary going upstream against a stiff current. It was impossible to go up the Mohawk from the Hudson above Albany, on account of the great falls at Cohoes; hence the long carry to Schenectady. From that place, by hard work, the boatmen could make their way up to Little Falls, where the water descends forty feet in roaring rapids. Here the loads and the bateaux had to be carried along the banks to the still water above, where, with many windings and doublings on their course, the voyagers could reach the Oneida Carrying Place, or Fort Stanwix. There they unloaded again, and for a mile or more tramped across low ground to Wood creek, a little stream flowing into Oneida lake, and thence into Oswego river and lake Ontario. The city of Rome stands exactly on the road followed by the “carry.” This was an important place, and was called by the Dutch Trow Plat, while to the Indians it was De-o-wain-sta, “the place where canoes are carried across.” Several forts were built there, of which the most famous was Fort Stanwix. We should think Wood creek a difficult bit of navigation. It was a small stream, very crooked, and often interrupted by fallen trees. In times of low water the boats were dragged up and even down the creek by horses walking in the water. [Illustration: FIG. 8. GENESEE STREET, UTICA Part of the old Genesee road] The first merchant of old Fort Schuyler (Utica) was John Post, who had served his country well through the Revolution. In 1790 he brought hither his wife, three little children, and a carpenter from Schenectady, after a voyage of about nine days up the river. Near the long-used fording place he built a store, at the foot of what is now Genesee street. Here he supplied the simple needs of the few families in the new hamlet, and bought furs and ginseng of the Indians, giving in exchange paint, powder, shot, cloth, beads, mirrors, and, it must be added, rum also. Thus the fact that the river was shallow at this point and could be passed without a bridge or a boat led to the founding of the city of Utica. The first regular mail reached the settlement in 1793, the post rider being allowed twenty-eight hours to come up from Canajoharie, a distance of about forty miles, now traversed by many trains in much less than an hour. On one occasion the Fort Schuyler settlement received six letters in one mail. The people would hardly believe this astonishing fact until John Post, who had been made postmaster, assured them that it was true. Post established stages and lines of boats to Schenectady, and soon had a large business, for people were pouring into western New York to settle upon its fertile lands.