Washington Irving, whose love of the romance of early Western history was ardent and sincere, beheld with unfriendly eye the introduction of the _steamboat_ upon the Missouri. He lamented the “march of mechanical invention,” which was “fast dispelling the wildness and romance of our lakes and rivers,” and “driving everything poetical before it.” However well-founded this fear may have been in the general case, we are inclined to think that the exact reverse was true of the Missouri River steamboat. This remarkable craft introduced romantic features of which the old keelboat and its Creole crew never dreamed. The incidents of a single steamboat voyage from St. Louis to Fort Union would make an entertaining chapter in any book of adventure. As to impressiveness of appearance, certainly no craft on our Western waters, if upon any waters of the globe, displayed more majesty and beauty, or filled the mind with more interesting reflections, than these picturesque vessels of the early days in the boundless prairies of the West. The very surroundings lent a peculiar attraction to the scene. In every direction the broad and treeless plains extended without water enough anywhere in sight even to suggest a boat. Winding through these plains was a deep valley several miles broad, with a ribbon of verdure running through it along the sinuous course of the river. Everything was still as wild and unsettled as before the advent of the white man, and there was little or nothing to suggest the civilization of the outside world. In the midst of this virgin wildness a noble steamboat appears, its handsome form standing high above the water in fine outline against the verdure of the shore; its lofty chimneys pouring forth clouds of smoke in an atmosphere unused to such intrusion, and its progress against the impetuous current exhibiting an extraordinary display of power. Altogether it formed one of the most notable scenes ever witnessed upon the waters of America. Naturally enough the wild Indian viewed with feelings of awe this great “fire canoe,” whose power to “walk on the water” had subdued the intractable current to its own will. It is said to have been the advent of the steamboat which finally turned the scale of the Indian’s favor toward the Americans as against the British. In truth, the Missouri River steamboat was a most attractive-looking craft. Unlike an ocean vessel, which is in large part buried beneath the waves, the river boat drew only three or four feet of water, and was therefore almost entirely above the surface. This gave it a great apparent size compared with its actual dimensions and tonnage. Its architectural design was pleasing to the eye. Its successive decks, surmounted by the texas and pilot-house, all painted a clear, even white, made it look like a veritable floating palace as it moved majestically among the groves of cottonwood and willow, or through the parched plains of the ashen-colored sage brush.