A boat leaving Galena on Friday evening usually arrived at St. Paul in time to have her cargo all ashore and ready to start on the return trip sometime on Tuesday—usually about noon. At that time we shall find the chief clerk studying the downstream rate sheets. These differ somewhat from the upstream and are like this, a few principal points being taken to illustrate:
DOWN-STREAM RATES
| 30 miles or under (no charge less than 25c) | 5c per mile | ||
| 30 to 60 miles | 4c per mile | ||
| Over 60 miles | 3c per mile | ||
| St. Paul or Stillwater to— | Miles | Cabin passage | Deck passage |
| Hastings | 32 | $1.50 | $1.00 |
| Red Wing | 65 | 2.50 | 2.00 |
| Winona | 146 | 4.50 | 2.50 |
| La Crosse | 175 | 5.00 | 3.00 |
| Prairie du Chien | 255 | 7.00 | 3.50 |
| Dunleith or Galena | 321 | 8.00 | 4.00 |
Downstream rates are somewhat less than the upstream, because, for one reason, it costs less to get a boat downstream. There is a four-mile current pushing the boat along, in addition to the applied power. Going upstream the boat had had this current to overcome before she gained an inch. A four-mile current is one-third of an average steamboat's progress. Again, the passengers do not get a chance to eat as much, and very often they were not served as well, on the down trip. Then, there were fewer people who wished to go down river, with the result that there were many boats bidding for the patronage of those who did make the trip. All these elements, with possibly others, entered into the cutting of the rates by about one-third on the down trip.
The only item besides passengers to be depended upon on the return trip, was wheat. There may have been some potatoes or barley, or, if fortune favored, some tons of furs and buffalo robes from the "Red River train", or some flour from the one mill at St. Anthony (now Minneapolis), or perhaps woodenware from the same point. There was always a more or less assorted cargo, but the mainstay was wheat. We will assume, in order to simplify this illustration, that there was nothing but wheat in sight at the time. There was no question about getting it. Every boat got all the wheat it could carry, and the shippers begged, almost on bended knees, for a chance to ship five hundred sacks, or a hundred, or fifty—any amount would be considered a great favor. Wheat was shipped at that time in two-bushel sacks, each weighing a hundred and twenty pounds. Three hundred tons, dead weight, is a pretty good cargo for a two-hundred ton boat. Wheat is dead weight, and a boat goes down into the water fast, when that is the sole cargo. We get five thousand sacks, all of which is unloaded at Prairie du Chien. The down trip foots up somewhat like this:
| 80 passengers at $8.00 | $ 640.00 |
| 5,000 sacks of wheat at 12c | 600.00 |
| ———— | |
| $1,240.00 |
Arriving in Galena Friday morning, the clerk figures up his receipts with the following result:
| Up trip | $4,450.00 |
| Down trip | 1,240.00 |
| ———— | |
| $5,690.00 |
The boat makes four trips during the month, leaving out the extra two or three days, which may have been spent on some sand-bar. At the end of the month the clerk again does some figuring, with this result:
| Income from four trips, at $5,690.00 | $22,760.00 |
| Less wages, fuel, provisions, etc. | 11,500.00 |
| ———— | |
| Net profit for month | $11,260.00 |