RIVER MEMORIES 
     
    
   
   
    
     Always a stream of surpassing beauty and scenic charm, ,\est River was 
     
     also a busy channel of commerce and communication between up-river © 
     
     districts and Charlottetown. In winter, the ice provided a swift highway 
     
     for the transportation of all kinds of farm produce and for the merchandise 
     
     that stocked the. shelves and .warehouses of the local stores. In summer, 
     
     steamer travel was a pleasant alternative to the long road journey. 
     
     Previous to the time of which I write, several steamboats had, at different. 
     
     -times, served the river communities. The first boat that I can recell was 
     
     the Hillsborough w--c"a sidewheeler which, I believe, was on loan from the 
     
     ‘Rocky Point Ferry run. Next came the City of London, an imposingly ornate: 
     
     craft of a style hitherto unknown to the river. - 
     
    

    
     On her upper deck stood a huge cabin, finished in rich mahogany panelin;: 
     
     decorated with an array of paintings of sea and landscape scenes. The 
     
     windows were Of vari-colored glass; the floor was covered from wall to wall 
     
     with deep-piled oriental carpetting. Luxuriously upholstered chairs and 
     
     lounges and a magnificent upright piano completed the appointments, which 
     
     would have better bsfitted a millionaire's yacht. The whole effect was |, 
     
     definitely awe-inspiring; people entering the place for the first time 
     
     spoke in hushed tones and trod lightly, as though entering the portals of 
     
     some great cathedral. The cabin was almost exclusively the domain of the > 
     
     lady passengers. Few men felt comfortable amid its elegance; furthermore, 
     
     most of them chewed tobacco ---u pastime for which no facilities had been 
     
     included in the layout. : 
     
    

    
     But, for all her grandeur, the City was completely unsuited to West 
     
     River navigation. She was cumbersome and dangerously slugrish in respondin; 
     
     to her helm when negotiating the narrow, winding channel, and her draught 
     
    
   
   
    
     was excessive. On a number of occasions, she ran aground at half-tide -- 
     
    
   
   
    
     notably at the Dummy's Creek and below MacEwen's wharf -- where she lay