FLEET OF OIL BOATS. 165 demand upon them. But the dams still remained, and were now pressed into a new service, of which their original builders never dreamed. Perhaps in all there are five or six of these dams, constructed with draws in the centre so that they can easily be opened at the proper time. By means of these dams, the water is collected and retained, so that "pond freshets" are arranged about two days in the week. The day and the hour are arranged beforehand for these artificial floods, and the oil men have every thing in readiness. At the appointed hour the upper dams are opened, and then as the flood pours down others below them give way adding to the volume, until the miniature tide has increased to a river. At each landing it receives its tribute of boats, until as the fleet approaches the mouth of the creek it numbers often times over two hundred boats, bearing with them from eight to ten thousand barrels of petroleum. The advent of this fleet of oil boats at the mouth of the river is in the highest degree spirited and exciting. As boat after boat rushes into the river, there is the dashing to and fro of the boatmen, rapidly handling their sweeps, to avoid running ashore on the one hand, and against the piers of the bridge on the other. Sometimes the danger is from Scylla, and sometimes from Charybdis, and sometimes it is received from both in quick succession. Men are shouting their orders on board the boats, and multitudes, who have collected on shore as spectators, shout their applause in all directions until the excitement becomes intense. Here and there a collision occurs, that often results in the crushing of the feebler boat and the indiscriminate 106 PERILS OF THE TRIP. mingling of boatmen, fragments of the broken craft, oil and the fixtures of the boat in one common ruin. "Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto; Arma virium, tabulæque et Troia gaza per undas.” A heavy oak barge running into a frail bulk constructed of pine planks, will pierce it as though its walls were simple paper, or two such barges will often crush the feeble little flat between them as they would an eggshell, when the boatmen are forced to take an unwilling bath in the water, and sometimes in the petroleum itself. Often two or three boats are thus wrecked and the contents lost at a single pond freshet, involving, of course, a serious loss, yet it is one of the risks of the business that must be placed as an offset to greater gains in other directions. In this fleet the form and variety of boats beggars all description. Sometimes there is the orthodox flat-boat with iron-bound barrels, with a show of respectability around it, and disposed to put on airs like a well-dressed swell in the midst of a crowd of ragged loafers. Next will follow a rude scow, and close upon it an unwieldy bulk, into which the oil has been pumped at the well, and, perhaps, bringing up the rear an unmanageable ladder-float, although these latter have lately been ostracised from the creek from their disposition to inflict damage and shipwreck upon the more respectable class of boats. This extemporized navigation is kept up and regulated by a kind of code of honor. Written laws and legal enactments have not yet learned of its existence. By a mutual understanding each oil producer along the creek pays a share of the expense in proportion to the amount ATLANTIC AND GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD. 167 of oil shipped. This is at the rate of about five cents per barrel. Before a pond freshet is to come off an agent visits the wells and collects this amount from those who propose availing themselves of its benefits, and in this way the labor and care necessary to keep the matter in order is compensated. After the oil produced by this pond freshet reaches Oil city, it is in part shipped down the river to Pittsburgh, in a manner already described, and in part is sent in other directions. River navigation is tedious, and for shippers to New York, Philadelphia, Boston, or the West the route is a very circuitous one. Better facilities are therefore looked for. Besides a large portion of the year the river is not navigable. Sometimes in the winter it is ice-bound for months, while in summer it frequently becomes so low as to be fordable, when the smallest craft must be laid up from use. Soon after the business began to enlarge and prosper, a new link in the great railroad system of the country was completed that at once promised relief. This was the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, extending from Salamanca on the the Erie Railway on the East, and connecting with the Western roads in Ohio, forming a connection with New York on the east and the Mississippi and beyond on the west. This road passed within twenty-five miles of Franklin, and the idea was suggested of building a branch road from Meadville to the latter place. The project was a feasible one, inasmuch as the route lay immediately down the valley of French creek, the portion of which was already graded for the tow-path of the old Franklin canal. But withal the company approached the enterprise with great fear and trembling. There was plenty of |