44 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



charge for sea-freights on articles of comparatively high value has 

 been reduced, is shown by the fact that the ocean transport of fresh 

 meats from New York to Liverpool does not exceed 1 cent (\d.) per 

 pound ; and including commissions, insurance, and all other items of 

 charge, does not exceed 2 cents (Id.) per pound. Boxed meats have 

 also been carried from Chicago to London as a regular business for 50 

 cents per 100 pounds. In 1860 Gd. (12 cents) per bushel was about 

 the lowest rate charged for any length of time for the transportation 

 of bulk grain from New York to Liverpool, and for a part of that 

 year the rate ran up as high as lS^d. (27 cents) per bushel. But for 

 the year 1886 the average rate for the same service was 2\d. (5 cents) 

 per bushel. In like manner, the cost of the ocean transportation of 

 tea from China and Japan, or sugar from Cuba, or coffee from Brazil, 

 has been greatly reduced by the same causes. 



The above are examples on a large scale of the disturbing influence 

 of the recent application of steam to maritime industries. The fol- 

 lowing is an example drawn from comparatively one of the smallest 

 of the world's industries, prosecuted in one of the most out-of-the-way 

 places : The seal-fishery is a most important industrial occupation 

 and source of subsistence to the poor and scant population of New- 

 foundland. Originally it was prosecuted in small sailing-vessels, and 

 upward of a hundred of such craft, employing a large number of men, 

 annually left the port of St. John's for the seal-hunt. Now few or no 

 sailing-vessels engage in the business ; steamers have been substituted, 

 and the same number of seals are taken with half the number of men 

 that w r ere formerly needed. The consequence is, a diminished oppor- 

 tunity for a population of few resources, and to obtain " a berth for 

 the ice," as it is termed, is now considered as a favor. 



Is it, therefore, to be wondered at, that the sailing-vessel is fast dis- 

 appearing from the ocean ; that good authorities estimated in 1886 

 that the tonnage then afloat was about twenty-five per cent in excess 

 of all that was needed to do the then carrying-trade of the world ; and 

 that ship-owners everywhere have been unanimously of the opinion 

 that the depression of industry is universal ? 



Great, however, as has been the revolution in respect to economy 

 and efficiency in the carrying-trade upon the ocean, the revolution 

 in the carrying-trade upon land during the same period has been even 

 greater and more remarkable. Taking the American railroads in 

 general as representative of the railroad system of the world, the 

 average charge for moving one ton of freight per mile has been re- 

 duced from about 2*5 cents in 1869 to 105 in 1885 ; or, taking the 

 results on one of the standard roads of the United States (the New York 

 Central) from 1-95 in 1869 to 068 in 1885. To grasp fully the mean- 

 ing and significance of these figures, their method of presentation may 

 be varied by saying that two thousand pounds of coal, iron, wheat, 

 cotton, or other commodities, can now be carried on the best managed 



