THE RIVERS OF AMERICA. 



Previous to the British occupation of Scinde, Karachi 

 was a mere fort; since then it has flourished greatly 

 and is now the chief town in Scinde, with a sea-borne 

 trade whose annual value exceeds ^4,000,000 sterling. 



Hitherto we have said very little about the great 

 rivers of America, whose enormous importance in the 

 trade of the world is every year increasing. " In no 

 single circumstance," says the Encyclopedia Britannica, 

 " is the superiority of America over the Old World so 

 conspicuous as in the numbers and magnitude of its 

 navigable rivers," which "not only surpass those of 

 the Old World in length and volume, but are so 

 placed as to penetrate everywhere to the heart of the 

 continent. " 



Of the great Amazon system we have already given 

 a short account. It is supposed that that mighty stream 

 alone discharges a greater quantity of water than the 

 eight principal rivers of Asia. The La Plata, another 

 great river of South America, is asserted by the same 

 authority to claim a probable superiority over the col- 

 lective waters of Africa. Personally we are inclined 

 to doubt this fact, nevertheless the La Plata, as we have 

 ourselves good reason to remember, is a very great 

 river, draining an area of some 1,200,000 square miles, 

 and furnishing with its various affluents a length of 

 about 20,000 miles of navigable waters. * The Orinoco, 

 though much inferior in size to these gigantic river 

 systems, is also a very large river, draining an area 

 of at least 400,000 square miles, and said to include 

 navigable waters 8,000 miles in length. The head waters 

 of all these river systems arise in unknown or at any 



* EncycL Brit., Qth Edition, Vol. i., p. 674 675 (Art. " America"). 



