If the journey of those days seems long to us, we must remember that to most of the travelers the scenery was fresh and interesting, for it was a visit to a new land. The rocky highlands, the blue Catskills, the winding Mohawk, and the towns and farms of the interior were perhaps as full of interest as the morning paper is on the trains of to-day. From Utica to Syracuse, more than fifty miles, is one great level; but on nearing Rochester the canal follows an embankment across a valley, and the passengers in those days looked wonderingly down on the tops of trees. At Lockport they heard the clatter as they slowly rose by a long row of locks to the top of the cliffs, and at Buffalo they looked out on a sea of fresh water. At Utica, Rome, Rochester, and other places, after a few years, side canals came in from north and south, from Binghamton and from the upper valley of the Genesee; and up in the hills great reservoirs were built, with shallow canals known as “feeders” leading down to the main trench. These were built to make sure that there should be water enough for dry seasons; for locks will leak, and whenever a boat locks down a lockful of water goes on toward the sea. Now all was stir and growth. Buffalo had started on its way to become a great city. Rochester ground more wheat and Syracuse made more salt. There was no doubt that New York would soon be known as the metropolis of the western world, and “Clinton’s Ditch” became the most famous of American canals. CHAPTER V THE NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILWAY The Erie canal had not long been finished when a new way of carrying men and merchandise came into use in New York. In the next year after the great celebration the legislature granted a charter to build a railroad from Albany to Schenectady. It is sometimes said that this was the first time in America that cars were drawn by means of steam. This is not true, but New York was not far behind some other states, and the De Witt Clinton train, of which a picture is shown in this chapter, looks as if it must have been one of the very earliest ones. This train made its trial trip in 1831, which was seventeen years after George Stephenson had built his first locomotive in England.