one-twelfth miles per hour, without tow. This initiated the series of steamers from 1858 to 1862, and, with others that soon followed, created a general enthusiasm in behalf of steam transportation, which led to a trip through the canal that fall, on a chartered steam-tug, by the Governor of the State, the Canal Board, and other notables, and with public receptions, speeches, &c., at different cities along the route. That boat was soon followed by the _S. B. Ruggles_, a first-class steam canal-boat, built by the Hon. E. S. Prosser, of Buffalo, with a first-class modern propeller, and with double the engine capacity of the former. The _P. L. Sternburg_ soon followed, and was a first-class boat, with modern twin-propellers, but with less engine capacity than the _Wack_. The same season there were some local steamers built to run regularly between different cities on the line of the canal. The following season of 1859 was the most active year the Erie Canal has ever known in regard to steam. The _C. Wack_ was sold to Mr. Prosser, who took out her Archimedean propellers, and substituted a modern propeller, and doubled her engine capacity, and reproduced her as the _City of Buffalo_. The _Gold Hunter_ was produced by the Western Transportation Company, of Buffalo. She was a short, oblong tub, with a square, box-like bow, and rounded stern, designed only to carry machinery and coal, and was to be recessed into the stern of ordinary horse-boats by cutting away an equivalent space therefrom. She was designed to make a trip on the canal, and be immediately transferred to another boat for return trip, thus to avoid the usual loss of time at the termini of the canal. She was abandoned after a brief trial. The canal-boat _Niagara_ had the Cathcart propeller supplied, which consisted of a union of the propeller and rudder by a universal joint in the shaft, and so adjusted as to unite them for steerage purposes. This design was tried on the steamer _Cathcart_, upon the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, in 1858, and with considerable newspaper _eclat_. The _Rotary_, of New York, was a new steamer for freighting purposes, with a rotary engine and common propeller. This occupied but little space, and worked prettily on exhibition. The _Eclipse_, of New York, was new, and had oscillating propeller engines. SCREW-TUGS. The _Gov. King_ was a medium-sized New York harbor propeller, and made