Sharon: Links worked! Fascinating details. The SIZE of some of these astonishes me. Thanks for the information. I have to admit, in spite of our modern communication, I didn't even know all the facts about our current presidents, so I think it is possiblenot everybody knew everything about Lincoln. Mark Twain probably would, however, given his association with the printed word. THANKS Arianne On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 6:46 AM, Sharon McCoy <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Reagan was a football announcer? That one passed me by. > > One thing that needs to be kept in mind, though is that flatboats and > rafts= > were different things. Now that I've read the biographical sketches, it > i= > s clear that Lincoln's trips were on flatboats, or what Huck calls > "trading= > scows," (Chs. 16 and 19), while Huck and Jim clearly have a piece of > raft.= > =20 > > A website called "The Steamboat Times" does a good job, so far as I > underst= > and the history of river traffic, of explaining the difference, using > sourc= > es and drawings from the era for each, along with photographs (some of > whic= > h are pretty harrowing!) -- including the stories of Lincoln's trips. The > = > entry on flatboats actually cites Huck's reference to a "trading scow" in > L= > ife on the Mississippi (Ch. 3). I'd forgotten it was included there. =20 > > Anyway, here are two links that are short enough (I hope) to avoid the > equa= > l signs that I know will plague the rest of this post. > > http://steamboattimes.com/flatboats.html > http://steamboattimes.com/rafts.html =20 > > Fascinating stuff. > > Cheers, > Sharon > ________________________________________