The Buffalo - Erie Canal Foundation
 

      Excerpted from the Appendix to Cadwallader D. Colden's 1825 Memoir on New York State's Canals.

 

296                                                                           APPENDIX. 

The Seneca Chief was superbly fitted up for the occasion, and among other decorations her cabin was adorned with two paintings, of which the following is a description.--One was a view of Buffalo Harbour, a section of Lake Erie, Buffalo Creek, and its junction with the Canal, &c.: the whole representing the scene exhibited at the moment of the departure of the Seneca Chief. The other was a classic emblematical production of the pencil. This piece, on the extreme left, exhibited a figure of Hercules in a sitting position, leaning on his favourite club, and resting from the severe labor just completed. The center shows a section  of the Canal, with a lock, and in the foreground is a full length figure of Gov. Clinton, in Roman costume; he is supposed to have just flung open the lock gate, and with the right hand extended, (the arm being bare,) seems in the act of inviting Neptune, who appears upon the water, to pass through and take possession of the watery regions which the Canal has attached to hi former dominions; the God of the Sea is upon the right of the piece, and stands erect in his chariot of shell, which is drawn by sea-horses, holding his trident, and is in the act of recoiling with his body, as if confounded by the fact disclosed at the opening of the lock; Naiades are sporting around the sea-horses in the water, who, as well as the horses themselves, seem hesitating, as if half afraid they were about to invade forbidden regions, not their own. The artist is a Mr. Catlin, miniature-portrait painter. Besides the paintings, the boat carried two elegant kegs, each with an eagle upon it, above and below which were the words-- “Water of Lake Erie." These were filled from the Lake, for the purpose of being mingled with the Ocean on their arrival in New York. The Committee deputed by the citizens of Buffalo, and attached to this boat, was composed of the following gentlemen, viz.-Hon. Judge Wilkinson, Captain Joy, Colonel Potter, Major Burt, Colonel Dox, and Doctor Stagg.

 In addition to the- boats above enumerated, was another, which, with its cargo, was more novel than the whole. This was "Noah's Ark," literally stored with birds, beasts, and "creep­ing things." She was a small boat, fitted for the occasion, and had on board, a bear, two eagles, two fawns, with a variety of other animals, and birds, together with several fish - not forgetting two Indian boys, in the dress of their nation--all products of the West.

      At BLACK ROCK the Celebration was commenced previously to the arrival of the Seneca Chief. Early in the morning a very handsomely fitted boat, called the Niagara, of Black Rock, started down the Canal, with several respectable citizens and some distinguished guests on board.*

* From the mouth of Buffalo Creek, the Canal runs close along the Lake shore to Black Rock, and thence along the Bank of Niagara River to the mouth of Tonnewanda Creek, ten miles from Buffalo, with a descent of a half inch in each mile; at the mouth of this Creek is a dam of four feet six inches, and the Canal enters the pond formed by this dam:--this Creek had a descent of only one foot in twelve miles, and the Canal follows the Creek, or rather the Creek forms the Canal these twelve miles, having a tow-path formed along its bank; at the end of this distance, leaving the Creek; a deep cut commences, which extends seven and a half miles, in a North Easterly direction, across what is called the Mountain Ridge, with about three miles of rock, averaging twenty feet in depth, and a descent of a half inch in each mile, to the brow of the mountain.

 

APPENDIX.                                                                                297

This boat remained at Lockport until the Seneca Chief arrived, when it fell into the rear. The Seneca Chief with the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and the several Committees on board, arrived a little after ten o'clock, when a salute was fired; the boat remained a few minutes, and when she departed, hearty cheers were exchanged. In the afternoon, a number of gentlemen sat down to an excellent dinner, at which Wm. A. Bird, Esq. presided. A number of toasts were drunk, and every thing was conducted in a manner creditable to the enterprising citizens. 

At Lockport---" the spot where the waters were to meet when the last blow was struck, and where the utility of an immense chain of locks was for the first time to be tested," the Cele­bration was in all respects such as to do honor to the work itself, and the patriotic feelings of the people. It is here that nature had interposed her strongest barrier to the enterprise and the strength of man. But the massive granite of the Mountain Ridge" was compelled to yield. The rocks, have crumbled to pieces and been swept away, and the waters of Erie flow tranquilly in their place.

 

 

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