16 Inland Navigation of America. 



terms to NewYork, and thence ship[)ed to the sta{)les of Virgi- 

 nia and Maryland. The success of this enterprise will probably 

 lead to the establishment of a tobacco staple at New York. 



In the early stage of the trade of the countries on the Ohio, 

 their products were embarked in rude vessels that descended by 

 that river and the Mississippi to New Orleans. Here the vessels 

 were broken up for fuel, and the money arising from the sale 

 of the merchandise remitted to Philadelphia or Baltimore: 

 from these cities the returns in foreign manufactures were con- 

 veyed across the mountains to the Ohio, and on its waters to 

 convenient points of distribution. The introduction of the 

 steam-boat produced a partial change, in permitting many 

 articles to be conveyed up the Mississippi against its powerful 

 stream. A third change is at hand, by which a great district 

 of country will be brought into communication with New York 

 as a mart both of import and export; while another, equally 

 extensive, will have it in its power to choose between that 

 city and New Orleans according to the circumstances of sea- 

 son, using the former in summer, the latter during the winter 

 months. 



Comments on Corpulency. — By William Wadd, Esq., F.L.S. 



Ridentem dicere verum 



Quid vetat ? 



The celebrated traveller, Dr. Clarke, alluding to the Pyramids of 

 Egypt, says, ** the mind, elevated by w^onder, feels at once the 

 force of the axiom, which, however disputed, experience con- 

 firms, — that in Vastness, whatever he its nature, there dwells sub- 

 limity." Why, therefore, may not the mountains of fat, the human 

 Olympi and Caucasi, excite our attention? — they fill a large 

 space in society — are great objects of interest, and ought to 

 afford us no small matter of amusement and instruction. 



It is now nearly twenty years since I gave, in some *' Cursory 

 Remarks on Corpulence," an account of all the most conspicu- 

 ous of these mountaineers from the earliest period ; and not- 

 withstanding Mr. Malthus's theories for thinning the population, 

 and my own for thinning the person, bodily bulk, or obesity, 

 seems as much in fashion as ever: and, if we judge from the man- 



