352 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
3. The more direct they are between any two points between which 
there is a competing means of transport. 
4. The more favorable they are to rapid haulage or propulsion, a 
condition which, for the sake of clearness, it is well to discriminate, 
even though the advantage under this head is almost inevitably asso- 
ciated with high capacity. 
5. The freer they are from such differences in level as necessitate 
the use of locks or other lifting and lowering contrivances, this being 
important, not merely in consequence of the loss of time in locking or 
otherwise changing the level, but in consequence of the additional 
expense, which varies with circumstances, being in many cases en- 
hanced by the necessity of supplying locking water artificially, or 
by the impracticability of making locks of large capacity. 
6. The smaller the impediments to navigation due to rapidity of 
current, or the occurrence of low or excessively high water, or ice. 
7. The greater the amount of commodities, at once heavy and bulky 
in proportion to their value, procurable at some point or points on or 
near the waterway and consumed at other points similarly situated. 
8. The less the expense involved in the handling of commodities, 
including any expenses arising from dainage or the risk of damage to 
the commodities. All kinds of coal suffer more or less in the severe 
handling involved in the use of waterways, but the softer kinds, of 
course, suffer most. While there is an enormous trade in coal on the 
Great Lakes of North America, coke, it is said, will not bear this mode 
of transport at all on account of the damage involved. Earthenware 
and glass may be conveyed undamaged in spite of the rough hand- 
lings to which they are exposed in water transport, but the extra care 
required in packing adds to the expense, and even then the risk adds 
to the insurance. 
9. The smaller the opportunity there is for railway or other com- 
petition. Railway competition is particularly formidable, not only 
because “the hard smooth road” (to adopt the description which 
Professor Jevons appled to a railway) allows of far quicker trans- 
port than can be effected by any other means, but also because rail- 
ways with their numerous interramifications offer the possibility of 
transport without break of bulk to a much greater extent than any 
system of inland waterways can approach. 
If time permitted, illustrations might be given of the special im- 
portance of several of these factors in promoting the use of inland 
waterways; but time does not permit, and I will only say that it 
seems to me, from the examination I have given to the subject, that 
if any one of the nine can be singled out as the most decisive in 
furthering inland water traffic, it is the seventh—the existence of 
