APKIL22, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



547 



not yet invented, and the postage on each 

 letter, which was limited to a single sheet 

 of paper, was 25 cents. 



The beginning of the third decade, or 

 about 1830, may be regarded as marking 

 the decadence of that grand scheme of in- 

 ternal communication by canals and na- 

 tional highways which had hitherto filled 

 the imaginations of statesmen and publi- 

 cists. The railroad had been born and a 

 revolution had begun, the end of which not 

 the wisest could or can foresee. To this 

 railroad system were we indebted, and we 

 are still indebted, for a stimulus to geo- 

 graphic research which has continued un-. 

 diminished to our own day. 



The twelfth edition of a school book on 

 geography by Daniel Adams appeared at 

 Boston in 1830. This book appears to have 

 been revised and brought down to 1827. 

 A few extracts from it will give a picture of 

 the geographic knowledge then existing. 

 He says : 



" Vessels are from 5 to 30 days on their 

 passage up to New Orleans, 87 miles, al- 

 though with a favorable wind they will 

 sometimes descend in 12 hours. From 

 Kew Orleans to Natchez, 310 miles, the 

 voyage requires from 60 to 80 days. Ships 

 rarely ascend above that place. It is navi- 

 gable for boats carrying about 40 tons and 

 rowed by 18 or 20 men to the falls of St. 

 Anthony. From New Orleans to the Illi- 

 nois the voyage is performed in about 8 or 

 10 weeks. Many of these difiSculties, ho<v- 

 ever, now are overcome and much is gained 

 by the successful introduction of steam navi- 

 gation." 



The children in our schools to- day are 

 asked, among other things, to set forth the 

 advantages for commerce possessed by the 

 Western States. This is the answer to 

 that question which Mr. Adams furnished 

 to their grandparents. As to these West- 

 ern States, which comprise all west of the 

 Alleghany mountains, he says : 



" The remote situation of this country 

 from the seaboard renders it unfavorable 

 to commerce. This inconvenience, how- 

 ever, is in some degree remedied by its 

 numerous large and navigable rivers, the 

 principal of which is the Mississippi, the 

 great outlet of the exports of these States ; 

 but such is the difficulty of ascending this 

 river that most of the foreign goods im- 

 ported into this country have been brought 

 from Philadelphia and Baltimore in wagons 

 over the mountains, until the invention of 

 steamboats, by which the country now be- 

 gins to be supplied with foreign goods from 

 New Orleans." 



The following passage, also from Adams, 

 throws strong light on the knowledge cur- 

 rent in 1827 as to the great prairies of the 

 West: 



" Pilkava prarie or plain is a high, level 

 ground in this State (he is speaking of In- 

 diana), seven miles long and three broad, 

 of a rich soil, on which there was never a 

 tree since the memory of man. Two hun- 

 dred acres of wheat were seen growing 

 here at one time a few years since yielding 

 fifty bushels on an acre." 



Missouri Territory at this time, so wrote 

 Adams: 



" Extends from the Mississippi on the 

 east to the Pacific ocean on the west, and 

 from the British possessions on the north 

 to the Spanish possessions on the south." 



In all this great region the only features 

 mentioned by Adams are the Mississippi, 

 Missouri and Columbia rivers, the Rocky 

 mountains and Astoria. St. Louis, with a 

 population of 4.600, was the center of the 

 fur trade. Similarly Detroit, in Michigan 

 Territory, with a population of 1,400, was a 

 fur-trading station, while western Georgia 

 was still in possession of the Indians called 

 Creeks, ' the most warlike tribe this side 

 the Mississippi.' 



"The White mountains," he tells us, 

 " are the highest not only in New Hamp- 



