Excerpt from A History of Travel in America, Vol. 2: Showing the Development of Travel and Transportation From the Crude Methods of the Canoe and the Dog-Sled to the Highly Organized Railway Systems of the Present<br><br>The Clermont prospered in spite of all jealousies.1 During the remainder of the year 1807 she continued to be run as a passenger boat, always crowded with enthu siastic voyagers eager to avail themselves Of the wonderful new system Of conveyance, who paid scant heed to her slow speed and occasional breakdowns. In the winter of 1807-1808 the boat was rebuilt and in the succeeding spring resumed her popular career. Tales Of her existence and exploits on the Hudson were published and com mented upon in all the newspapers Of the country, and the inhabitants of every section where navigable rivers were the chief arteries Of travel displayed an anxiety to acquire a similar means of locomotion. Within a short time the recognized necessity Of steam as an indispensable motive power in transportation assumed all the quality of an immemorial axiom. A clamor for steamboats arose, and the people could not understand how they had ever got along without them.<br><br>Nevertheless there was a delay Of more than sixteen years before the use of steam propulsion became widely prevalent, and the underlying reason for that halt on the way toward further progress is to be found, most singu larly, in the circumstances leading to the appearance of the Clermont.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.