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- berm side/tow side
- differentiated sides of the canal boat
- long-eared robin, or hayburner
- names for a mule
- feeders
- channels to bring water into the canal to maintain a certain level
- waste weirs
- channels used to dispose of excess water from the canal
- mudlarked
- grounded due to a shortage of water
- tuble-bays
- carried water around the locks
- sidecut
- waterway connecting the canal with a stream, river or another canal
- long level
- stretch of canal without a break or lock. Three famous were the Rochester, Fairport and Genesee
- shunpike
- avoid tolls by detouring around the toll booth
Canallers
- lock-tenders/lock-keeps
- Tended locks, opened and closed gates, directed traffic. Operated out of a structure that was a combination house and office. Often doubled as fight referee, salesman, grocer and tavern keeper to boaters. "An American type cut from the mold of B. Franklin and the Yankee Trader."
- boaters
- general term for canallers; also canawlers or steersmen
- hoggee
- "driver boy" (derived from hogler, a field hand of the lowest class)
- trippers
- long haul workmen who stayed on the canal from east to west; often know as troublemakers; most often individuals with a love for the canal
- jigger-boss
- A boy who provided whisky to workers at "appropriate intervals"
- runners
- used to seek out passengers on packet boats
- scalpers
- primarily relating to shipping of freight; scalpers would assign cargo to boats
- foo foo
- a foreigner or immigrant worker
- fog-gang
- workers who cleaned out the canal annually
Potables and Provisions
- grog
- any kind of alcoholic beverage (originated as a British admiral's drink)
- foamer
- a mug of ale
- prog
- general term for food
- pritties
- boiled or baked potatoes
- skimmagig
- buttermilk
- fip
- a coin worth about six cents
- rhino
- cash on hand
- rhino-fat
- rich or well-off
- canal scrip
- an IOU
Vessels and Lodging
- packet
- passenger boats, or a cabin for passengers
- line boat
- carried mixed freight
- bullhead
- a boat with a rounded front and no side-deck
- shanty
- a houseboat
- durham
- a long, clumsy boat
- squeezer
- a two sectioned boat or "double barge"
- hoodledasher
- multiple boats tied together to be pulled by one team of horses or mules
*Compiled from sources on folklore including Wyld's Low Bridge and Thompson's Body, Boots & Britches
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