Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 9).djvu/138

132 of craft, and were made of every conceivable material. The great barges of early days were moved by sails when the wind was favorable. Both barges and keel-boats were "provided with a mast, a square sail" Canoes were frequently provided with sails and their progress was more or less dependent on the winds.

The story of the building of the first brigs and schooners on the Ohio and its tributaries, the dreams of their proprietors and masters, and the experiences of their crews, is a subject worthy of a volume. The building of these larger craft for the Mississippi and ocean trade suggests at the outset the long, conflicting story of Mississippi control which can only be hinted at here.

This business of building sailing vessels in the Ohio Basin began the decade before the nineteenth century opened, and grew more and more important until steam