were engaged in maple-sugar making in the spring, and that they were able to make considerably more of that article than could be used by the people; so that quite a quantity of it was carried to the country store, where it found a ready market and from whence it was shipped to the cities in considerable quantities.

Here also was carried butter, the good, bad, and indifferent, where it was all packed together in firkins made at the local cooper shop, and then sent to market. We doubt if in those days of slow transportation its flavor was improved in the shipping; but then, as now, it was good Vermont butter and everywhere it went in high favor with the city folk. Other articles of export were bar iron, nails, beef, pork, cattle, horses, cheese, flax, etc. The imports were chiefly articles of clothing, tea, coffee, salt, building material, and liquors.

Trade was carried on with Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Canada; but much the greater portion of it with New York and Canada. Trade with Boston and New York was carried on chiefly by sled or wagon over long and bad roads; and that with Connecticut and Canada by means of Connecticut River and Lake Champlain. The Connecticut River furnished the means for the transportation of the lumber of the eastern part of the State to towns below; and the timber of the western part was shipped or rafted by Lake Champlain, the Richelieu and the St. Lawrence rivers to Quebec, where it found a ready market.

Shipping on the Connecticut.-A kind of boat now extinct was used on the Connecticut to carry the products of that valley to the towns below. They were called, in general, "Fall Boats," as they were able to pass through the locks which had been built upon the river at the falls.

There were three of these locks on the river adjacent to Vermont. They were at Olcott Falls (now Wilder), Hartland, and Bellows Falls.

These boats were built of pine, were provided with masts and oars, and were of about twenty tons burden. Many of them were constructed at White and Wells rivers. They were run by “river-men," as they were called. As they had no cabins, their crews always boarded along the shore.

The work of the oars, aided by the current, made the trip down stream an easy one; but unless on the return the wind happened to be favorable, nothing availed but the "setting poles," which were spiked at the ends and some of them fifteen or twenty feet in length. By inserting these poles in the river-bed, the boats were pushed onward by main force. Most of the way the poles were worked by four men; but in places where the stream was rapid, an extra force was taken on. In the most difficult places the boats were carried onward by "tracking," as the process was called when the boats were towed for a distance by horses, oxen, and sometimes men, harnessed to the work by means of a long rope.

A loaded boat could travel up stream usually about a mile and a half an hour, but with a stiff breeze sometimes made five miles in the same length of time.

Because of the difficulty of getting these boats up the river, they were often broken up and sold for lumber at Hartford, Conn., being replaced by new ones built during the following winter. Heavily loaded boats, too large to pass through the locks, would often come up from below as far as Bellows Falls, and were met there by smaller boats to which their merchandise was transferred and thus carried on to its destination.

Shipping on Lake Champlain.-Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, the people of Vermont, more especially those of the northwestern part, opened trade with Canada. Steps were taken to procure free trade with the province of Quebec and through that province with England. This was practically accomplished, as only peltry and a few foreign articles were excepted.

In summer, enormous rafts of great pine logs bearing barrels of potash were often seen voyaging slowly down the lake to Canada; sloops and schooners loaded with cargoes of wheat and potash followed in their wake; while up the lake came Canadian vessels burdened with their cargoes of salt, West India molasses, codfish, West India and Jamaica rum, and other products from across the seas. In winter, when lake and river became a plain of ice, this same traffic was carried on in sleighs that glided easily over the smooth ice. In 1808, the very next year after Fulton had launched the steamer Clermont on the Hudson, the second successful steamboat ever built was launched upon Lake Champlain; and this was called the Vermont. This boat was able to travel at the rate of five miles an hour, and did good service for seven or eight years, when it was lost. It was not many years before this lake could boast some of the finest steamboats in the world.

Smuggling. The declaration of the Embargo Act by Congress, in 1808, forbidding trade with foreign countries, cut off this lucrative trade, and caused great distress to those Vermonters who lived along the lake shore. This gave rise to an extensive contraband trade; and smugglers boldly carried on their trade by night in armed bands. The revenue officers so feared these smugglers that they seldom ventured to interfere with them; but there were

at times conflicts between them and sometimes lives were lost.

In 1808 a notorious smuggling vessel called the Black Snake was seized by a party of the militia a few miles up the Winooski. The smugglers fired upon the militia, killing three of their number. The offenders were tried for murder before the Supreme Court. One of them was sentenced to death, and three others to ten years' imprisonment.

TEST.

1. The fifth period covers how many years?

2. What characterizes the period?

3. Why was Vermont better off than the other States at the close of the war?

4. Describe the currency issued by Vermont during her independence. 5. How was the controversy between New York and Vermont settled? 6. When was Vermont admitted into the Union ?

7. What effect did this have upon her subsequent history?

8. What was her representation in Congress, and how was it determined?

9. What was the work of the Legislature?

10. How were roads constructed?

11. What counties were formed during this period?

12. Give something of a history of the early Vermont churches.

13. How were the schools maintained ?

14. What colleges were incorporated during the period? Tell something of their history?

15. What was the first library established in the State ?

16. What is the oldest newspaper of the State? The second oldest ?

17. Name some of the Vermont writers of the day.

18. Give an account of the politics of early Vermont.

19. What principle was early established in the choice of public

officers ?

20. When was Montpelier made the permanent seat of government ? 21. Describe the first State House.

22. What were the prominent industries of this period?

23. Name four staple articles of export.

24. Describe the shipping on the Connecticut.

25. What effect did the Embargo Act have on the people of northern

Vermont ?

26. What was the first steamboat launched on Lake Champlain ?

27. Locate Montpelier, Burlington, Bellows Falls, Danby, Wheelock, Fairlee, Hartland, Vergennes