CHAPTER XX 



TRANSPORTATION ON THE WATER AND 

 IN THE AIR 



By making possible fast ocean-going ships, rapid rail- 

 way trains, and high-powered aircraft, science has reduced 

 the time formerly required for travel so that nations 

 separated by great distances have become neighbors. 

 Today the products of the whole world may be drawn 

 upon to meet the needs of any people. 



Within recent years, new highways have been opened 

 in the air above us, and already man may travel where he 

 will, over all obstructions, at speeds faster than those of 

 the swiftest birds. By new and better transportation on 

 land, on sea, and in the air, the whole wide world is now 

 being knit closer together. 



In the early days of man, large bodies of water set a limit to 

 his travels. He might swim or wade across a small stream but 

 larger ones held him back. Even after he had discovered means 

 of crossing the larger streams he was helpless before great lakes 

 and the vast oceans. It was only very gradually that he was able 

 to develop means of getting across to the lands that lay beyond. 



Perhaps man's first craft was a floating log on which he sat 

 astride and paddled with his hands or with a broken branch. 

 After a time, in order to carry heavier loads, he bound several 

 logs together and formed a raft, using a pole or a paddle to pro- 

 pel it. Later he learned to hollow out the inside of a log by fire 

 and by rude tools, and so fashioned the dugout, which was a fore- 

 runner of the canoe and of the small boat. 



Gradually man learned to make framed ships of boards, and 

 to change his paddles to oars. These framed ships grew in size 

 with increased demands for transporting people and goods, and 

 with them the oars increased in number. For many centuries 

 large ships, called galleys, were used for sea traffic. These were 

 driven by oars of great length, often arranged in several rows 

 or banks, one above the other, and manned by slaves. 



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