364 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
would be formed by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, connecting 
Chicago with the Des Plaines River, a canal with a minimum depth 
of 14 feet, begun in 1892, and now approaching completion, This 
canal the trustees of the sanitary district of Chicago propose to hand 
over to the General Government on condition that it completes the 
projected waterway; but when one considers that the 42 miles of this 
canal, when completed, will have cost about £11,500,000, the total 
estimate above given must surely be rather sanguine. 
Such a project as this may at least serve to give an idea of the 
enthusiasm which inland waterways inspire in the minds of some 
people, but is not fitted to afford any guidance in the study of English 
waterways, and to these it is now time to devote attention. With 
reference to the special subject of this inquiry, namely, the influence 
of geographical conditions on rail and water transport, there are few 
countries, if any, in which the facts are more worthy of study than 
our own, seeing that in this country the two means of transport have 
been left to fight it out between themselves, with little interference 
on the part of the State. It has been the general rule in other coun- 
tries, as in Germany and the United States, for the State to intervene 
on behalf of the waterways. In this country the only way in which 
the State can be said to prejudice the railways in the contest is in 
insisting, in the case of those canals which have become railway prop- 
erty, that the canals shall be maintained whether the railway can 
work them at a profit or not, and that the owning companies shall, 
at the demand of traders, quote rates subject to State regulation. I 
would not be understood to assert that this is undue interference on 
the part of the State. I merely mention it as at least a fact that 
should be recognized. 
And here I may point out that the existence of railway-owned and 
railway-controlled canals in this country introduces another geo- 
graphical consideration, although only of a secondary order, by 
which I mean one not originally given or mainly determined by 
nature. Once established, however, the nature of the ownership may 
have geographical effects, and it is at least incumbent on us to inquire 
whether it has such or not. For that reason several canal maps have 
been drawn up in which the distinction of ownership or control is 
indicated, and one of these I am now able to show through the 
courtesy of Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. On this map, it should 
be noticed, the canals are distinguished, not as railway owned and 
independent, but as railway controlled and independent; for this 
makes an important difference, inasmuch as the Birmingham Canal 
Navigation belongs to an independent company. This, however, is 
a mere dividend-receiving company, the dividend being guaranteed 
