Proceeding further north we reach Boston Bay, more celebrated than any other place in the history of the War of Independence, a thoroughly sheltered inlet of about 75 square miles in extent, inclosed by two necks of land so nearly approaching each other as to leave only a narrow entrance communicating directly with the Atlantic, with deep water close in shore where numerous wharves are erected as in the case of New York. Further north, we reach Narraganset Bay, and, within it, the town of Newport and its finely sheltered roadstead forming one of the most superb natural harbours in America; also Penobscot Bay into which the river of that name flows, and Passamaquoddy with its excellent roadstead receiving the waters of the River St. Croix, the boundary between the United States and the Dominion of Canada. With such magnificent bays, harbours, roadsteads, lakes, and rivers all ready formed by the hand of Nature to receive an almost unlimited extent of shipping, and, at the same time, peculiarly adapted for the employment of steamers, it is not a matter for surprise that the Americans should have directed their genius and energy to this new branch of industry and their skill to the rapid development of the power of steam, affording them as it did extraordinary means of opening out hitherto unknown branches of commerce and new sources of almost unbounded wealth. More conversant at this period than any other nation with the most approved style of shipbuilding, and possessing an abundant supply of materials at a comparatively low price, they were able, when steam-vessels were first introduced, to construct them at a lower cost than any other people; and if they had not the same facilities for obtaining steam-engines, these could easily be obtained from England. [Sidenote: Rapid increase of steam-vessels.] From the time therefore that Fulton[152] launched the _Clermont_ at New York, and proved, by her performance in 1808 on the Hudson, that vessels propelled by steam could be made a source of profitable employment, they were increased with a rapidity and employed to an extent, especially during the first quarter of this century, far in excess of Great Britain. Besides the _Clermont_, launched in 1807, Mr. Charles Brown, an enterprising shipbuilder of New York, built in that year, also for the navigation of the Hudson, the _Car of Neptune_ of 295 tons, and the _Rareton_, of 120 tons, named after the river on which she was employed. In 1811, he launched the _Paragon_, of 331 tons, which was likewise employed on the Hudson, and, in 1812, the _Firefly_, to trade between New York and Newburg, as well as the _Jersey_, ferry-boat of 118 tons, employed in the same year by the Ferry Company for the conveyance of passengers between New Jersey and the city of New York. [Sidenote: First vessels built for the western rivers and lakes.]