THE 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL 



OF 



SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 



On the Inland Navigation of the United States of America, 



PART I. 



(Communicated by the Author.) 



It is now some time since the United States of America have 

 ranked as a maritime nation, second to Great Britain alone. 

 It is, however, only recently that the public attention has been 

 turned, in that country, to the improvement of internal naviga- 

 tion ; but such rapid progress has been made in that direction, 

 within the last ten years, that, in this respect also, it may be 

 considered as having surpassed any other nation except England : 

 nay, such is the demand for inland water communication, arising 

 from the wide spread of an agricultural population, whose pro- 

 ducts are of great bulk, and nearly all of whose artificial wants 

 are supplied from foreign countries, that the time cannot be far 

 distant when, in the extent and number of its canals, the United 

 States will probably exceed any civilized nation. 



Previous to the year 1816 the artificial inland communica- 

 tions of the United States were limited to a very few imperfect 

 and partial attempts. With the exception of the Merrimack 

 Canal in Massachusetts, and the Santee Canal in South Carohna, 

 no continuous and complete line of artificial navigation existed ; 

 in all other cases, nothing more had been actually effected, than 

 to deepen and improve the channels of a few rivers, and to pass 

 their more abrupt rapids and falls by means of locks. Thus, a 

 boat navigation, of a precarious kind, had been extended from 



JAN.— MARCH, 1828. B 



