| Summary: | Plate 33 from FORTY ETCHINGS: FROM SKETCHES MADE WITH THE CAMERA LUCIDA, IN NORTH AMERICA IN 1827 AND 1828 by Captain Basil Hall. From the author's description: "The Steam-Boats on the Mississippi, which are vessels from two to four hundred tons burden, are moved by one engine, generally on the high-pressure principle. As the water in which they have to navigate is always smooth, and the winds are seldom violent, they are enabled to adopt two very commodious devices, which it would be impossible to apply to sea-going vessels. The deck is made to extend on both sides eight or ten feet beyond the hull, by which a great additional width is acquired, while over this wide space they are enabled to form two tiers of accommodations above the deck. In the lower range the usual luxuries of a packet are provided for passengers who require state-rooms or sleeping births [sic]; and those who have the means of paying for such entertainment have an ample table provided for them. There is in all these boats, also a separate cabin for the ladies in a third suite, which lies below the deck.The upper tier of all is occupied by what are called Deck Passengers, chiefly consisting of the men who, having floated down the Mississippi in their great flats or arks, take advantage of the steam-boats to return home again. These deck passengers, of course, pay a much smaller sum than those below stairs, as they provide themselves, and have but rough lodgings allotted them. They generally contract for an abatement of two dollars from their passage-money, on condition of assisting to carry on board the fire-wood; so that, for about eight dollars, or about L.1, 14s., they are carried upwards of a thousand miles. This Sketch shows the Bows, or foremost end, of the Steam-Boat Philadelphia at a wooding station on the Mississippi, 838 miles from the sea, on the right bank, in the territory of Arkansas."
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