THE IMPROVEMENT OF WATERWAYS 



193 



building a canal several hundred miles long. Since then 

 almost every civilized nation has discovered for itself the 

 need of increasing the usefulness of its natural waterways 

 and has built artificial channels in order to extend cheap 

 and easy facilities for transportation. 



SINGEL CANAL, AMSTERDAM 

 A canal taking the place of the usual city street. 



America has been slower to awake to the importance of 

 this work than have the nations of western Europe with 

 their denser populations. Many European countries are 

 veritable networks of improved river channels and canals. 

 The Seine carries the greater part of the ocean freight to and 

 from Paris. The Rhine is used to the very limit of its navi- 



