On Thursday, at nine o'clock in the morning, I left Albany, and arrived at the Chancellor's at six in the evening: I started from thence at seven, and arrived at New York at four in the afternoon -- time, thirty hours; space run through, one hundred and fifty miles; equal to five miles an hour. Throughout mv whole way, both going and returning, the wind was ahead; no advantage could be derived from my sails: the whole has, therefore, been performed by the power of the steam-engine. 1 am sir, your obedient servant, ' Robert Fulton.

One frightened spectator of Fulton's experiment described the contrivance as " the Devil in a sawmill ' ' -- a not inapt comparison. The invited guests who stood upon the deck of the first of all successful steamboats as it snorted and puffed and clattered on its way up the river, must have been prepared for any emergency. We can imagine the more timorous ardently wishing themselves on shore again, £ind feeling that they had indeed taken their lives in their hands. The use of fat pine wood for fuel made a particularly impressive spectacle when night overtook the voyagers, for the sparks flew in a ceaseless stream and warranted the statement that " It was a monster, moving on the river, defying wind and tide, and breathing flames and smoke. ' ' Such wa s the progenitor of all the steam-craft in the world, and this the death-warrant to the fleets of sails that used to gladden the bosom of the Hudson. True, the execution of the warrant was delayed for more than half a century, or rather was accomplished by insensible degrees, so that no definite date can be assigned to it-- but accomplished it finally is.