Travellers soon found great pleasure in making their western journeys by canal-boat, and the canal became a thoroughfare of travel as well as of trade. That bright and interesting raconteur, Mrs. Anne Royall, went west by this route in 1827–1828, and left a vivid account of the boats and their method of locomotion. The canal she describes as having a neat railing outside the tow-path, painted white and about four feet high. Within this railing the route was fringed on both sides with beautiful crimson Canadian thistles, which flourished in the sandy gravel. Two kinds of boats passed along this waterway,--packet boats and freight boats. The packet boats, accommodating about thirty passengers, were fitted up with dining-rooms, separate quarters for ladies and gentlemen, and rooms lined with berths, as was the custom in all steamboats of that day. The fare, including board, was four cents a mile; without board, three cents. The prices were thirty-seven and a half cents for dinner, twenty-five for breakfast, and twelve and a half for lodging. Mrs. Royall made her first journey from Schenectady to Utica, a distance of eighty miles, passing through twenty-six locks, in twenty-four hours. The boat was drawn by three stout horses, who proceeded at a brisk trot and were relieved every ten miles by fresh horses and a new driver. Freight boats were drawn by two horses or even only one, and took passengers at the same rate as freight, a cent and a half a mile. Whenever her boat met another, and this was very often, Mrs. Royall sat in dread of a collision, or at least a tangling of the ropes, but each time they slipped past each other as if by magic. After some watching she saw that the boats going west had the right of way and proceeded as usual, while the boatman of the vessel going east checked his horses till the rope fell for an instant very loose in the water, and the other boat and team could slip over it. The canal was frequently crossed by bridges, which made sitting on the upper deck dangerous; but when they approached one of these obstructions the helmsman called out in a loud voice, “Low bridge!” and the passengers promptly “ducked” their heads. When the tow-path crossed the bridge instead of going under it, the driver swung his team over so fast that the movement of the boat was barely slackened. These boats carried the mails, were widely advertised for traffic and travel, and were met at every important point by stages connecting with the neighboring towns and villages. This method of travelling was recommended by all as far preferable to the jolting, overcrowded stage-coach.