The "line boats," as the larger craft were known, also connected with these through trains. In the morning they did not depart until after the arrival of the train from Syracuse. In detail their schedule by 1850 was as follows: Lv. Lewiston 4 p.m. " Rochester 10 p.m. " Oswego 9 a.m. " Sackett's Harbor 12 m. " Ogdensburgh 7 a.m. Ar. Montreal 6 p.m. Lv. Montreal 9 a.m. " Ogdensburgh 8 a.m. " Kingston 4 p.m. " Sackett's Harbor 9 p.m. " Oswego 10 a.m. " Rochester 6 p.m. Ar. Lewiston 4 a.m. Here for many years, before the coming of the railroad, was an agreeable way of travel into Northern New York. These steamers, even with thirty foot paddle-wheels, were not fast; on the contrary they were extremely slow. Neither were they gaudy craft, as one might find in other parts of the land. But their rates of fare were very low and their meals, which like the berths, were included in the cost of the passage ticket, had a wide reputation for excellence. Until the coming of the railroad into Northern New York, the line prospered exceedingly. Indeed, for a considerable time thereafter it endeavored to compete against the railroad--but with a sense of growing hopelessness. And eventually these once famous steamers having grown both old and obsolete, the line was abandoned. A rival line upon the north edge of Lake Ontario, the Richelieu & Ontario, continued to prosper for many years, however, after the coming of the railroad. Its steamers--the _Corsican_, the _Caspian_, the _Algerian_, the _Spartan_, the _Corinthian_ and the _Passport_ best known, perhaps, amongst them--ran from Hamilton, touching at Toronto, Kingston, Clayton, Alexandria Bay, Prescott and Cornwall, through to Montreal, where connections were made in turn for lower river ports. The last of these boats continued in operation upon the St. Lawrence until within twenty years or thereabouts ago. It is worthy of note that the completion in 1829 of the first Welland Canal began to turn a really huge tide of traffic from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, and for two decades this steadily increased. In 1850 Ontario bore some 400,000 tons of freight upon its bosom, yet in the following year this had increased to nearly 700,000 tons, valued at more than thirty millions of dollars. In 1853 a tonnage mark of more than a million was passed and the Lake then achieved an activity that it has not known since. In that year the Watertown & Rome Railroad began its really active operations and the traffic of Ontario to dwindle in consequence. Whilst the cross-St. Lawrence ferry at Cape Vincent, the first northern terminal of the Rome road, began to assume an importance that it was not to lose for nearly forty years. * * * * *