April 15, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



219 



those of any other nation in a similar period. This is not due 

 in any great degree to immigration, for our population has in- 

 creased in no greater ratio since this immigration commenced 

 than before, and experts believe that it would have been as large 

 and more homogeneous without immigration. We had at one 

 time a large foreign commerce, and our merchants were the first 

 to establish direct trade with China and the East Indies ; the 

 Stars and Stripes were seen floating on every sea and flying in 

 every harbor, and for years we were the second maritime nation 

 of the world. 



The commerce of the world passed from wooden sailing ships 

 to side-wheel steamers, to iron and then to steel propellers; 

 England was a worker in iron and machinery of every kind, we 

 were not. The civil war came and hastened the day which was 

 sure to come. Our shipping faded away faster than it had 

 arisen, while that of Gr^at Britain increased as rapidly as ours 

 decreased. This was not owing to a decrease of our foreign 

 trade, for during the last twenty years our exports and imports 

 have increased more than twice as rapidly as those of Great 

 Britain." Eighty-seven fer cent of these exports and imports 

 are carried in British ships, consigned to English houses which 

 have been established in every large port in the world, and the 

 proceeds are usually remitted to the London banker. 



Fortunately, our flag never disappeared from our inland waters 

 and from our coasting trade; for foreigners are excluded from 

 the coasting trade, even where the ports are fifteen thousand 

 miles apart by water. 



The substitution of steamers for sailing ships and of steel for 

 wooden propellers, which took place from ten to twenty years 

 ago on the ocean, is now going rapidly on upon our lakes. Where 

 in 1886 there were but six steel propellers, now there are sixty- 

 eight; and of 2,2!i5 vessels on the northern lakes, 1.153 are 

 steamers, 902 are sailing vessels. The action of Congress in 

 providing for the construction and equipment of war vessels by 

 competition has led our shipbuilders within the last eight years 

 to establish ship-yards and machine shops where the largest 

 ships can be built, and we are now building as large and fast 

 vessels of war as England. Our ship-builders claim that they can 

 construct ships equal in carrying capacity, speed and strength to 

 those of Great Britain, and at no greater cost ; though they can- 

 not be run so cheaply because our sailors are better housed, fed 

 and paid than those of other nations. The day will surely come 

 when commerce will make her last movement westward, when 

 America, lying between Europe and Asia, with her boundless 

 mineral and agricultural resources, her manufacturing facilities, 

 her extended sea-coasts, will be the foremost nation and New 

 York the commercial capital of the world. 



Nicaragua Canal. 



From New York to San Francisco by land is about 3,000 miles, 

 by water it is about 15,000 miles ; yet, notwithstanding the 

 greater distance, freight is constantly sent by water. From San 

 Francisco it is about the same distance by water to either New 

 York or London. If a waterway could be opened across the 

 isthmus of Panama from one ocean to the other, the distance 

 from New York to San Francisco would be diminished more than 

 one-half, and San Francisco would be over 2,000 miles nearer 

 New York than London. The first proposition for canals con- 

 necting the two oceans was made in 1550, suggesting two routes, 

 by Panama and Nicaragua ; and explorations and surveys of both 

 have been frequently made, and various attempts made for their 

 construction. 



The success of the Suez Canal induced M. de Lesseps to under- 

 take the connection of the two oceans by the construction of the 

 Panama Canal, believing that the tonnage passing through it 

 would equal that of the Suez Canal. This work has not been suc- 

 cessful; the canal remains unfinished, with no prospects of com- 

 pletion. 



Several hundred miles north of Panama is the lowest conti- 

 nental divide; 148 feet above tide- water on the Pacific slope of 



1 The exports of the United States have increased 112 per cent, the exports 

 and imports 92 per cent ; the exports of Great Britain .35 per cent, her exports 

 and Imports 37 per cent. 



this divide is Lake Nicaragua, connected by the river San Juan 

 with the Atlantic; up this river and through this lake, some 

 thirty years ago, was one of the regular ways of intercommuni- 

 cation, both for freight and passengers, between New York and 

 California. 



The Maritime Canal Company and the Canal Construction Com- 

 pany, organized by Americans, have obtained concessions from 

 Nicaragua, and have made surveys for canal, slack-water, and 

 lake navigation from Greytown on the Atlantic through Lake 

 Nicaragua to Brito on the Pacific, a distance of 170 miles. A har- 

 bor has been opened at Greytown and considerable work performed 

 on the canal. The Panama route had the great advantage of an 

 open channel from ocean to ocean, whereas the Nicaragua route 

 requires several locks to cross the divide ; but Brito is some six or 

 seven hundred miles nearer California than Panama, a saving in 

 distance that will compensate for the delay in locking. The open- 

 ing of this canal will be the greatest benefit that could be conferred 

 upon our commerce and shipping. 



Freights by water between New York and California are now 

 so high that a large portion goes by railroad. The effect that 

 this canal should produce will be evident if we consider the great 

 difference in expense between land and water carriage. Rail rates 

 between New York and Chicago are a trifle over six mills per ton 

 per mile, while the ocean rates on grain to Liverpool in 1888 were 

 about half a mill per ton per mile ; and one mill per ton per mUe, 

 or three dollars per ton from New York to Liverpool, is said to be 

 a fair rate, while the all-rail rate between New York and San 

 Francisco averages from forty to eighty dollars per ton, according 

 to the class to which the freight belongs. It takes from seven 

 to ten days to go from New York to Liverpool, twice as long from 

 New York to San Francisco by rail, thirty days by Panama, and 

 one hundred and twenty days by the all-water route around Cape 

 Horn. 



The opening of this canal will therefore reduce the freight on 

 goods between the east and west at least three fourths and possi- 

 bly more. It will give us a free, easy, and cheap communication 

 by water between the Eastern and Western States ; our commerce 

 will be built up, and the wealth and commerce of the Atlantic 

 coast and the population of the States on the Pacific coast will be 

 increased in a wonderful manner. 



The opening of this route will give a demand for large steam- 

 ships, and when we have such ships large ship-yards and machine- 

 shops will spring up, and these alone are wanted to enable us to 

 build and run ships on the Atlantic Ocean in competition with 

 Great Britain. Then the prediction of Mr. Cramp will be fulfilled, 

 that Englishmen will be asking one another, " Can we build ships 

 as economically as they do in the United States?" 



Modes of Conveyance. 



The earliest transportation of merchandise was by caravans. 

 The first caravan of which we have any certain account vvas that 

 of the Ishmaelites and Moabites, who, while they were travelling 

 from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh 

 to Egypt, bought Joseph of his brethren and sold him as a slave 

 to Potiphar. These caravans were formed of merchants banded 

 together for protection, under a guide and leader, sometimes num- 

 bering several hundred, with one thousand camels in a caravan. 

 They travelled from seventeen to twenty miles a day, but only in 

 the spring and autumn months. At night they stopped at cara- 

 vansaries, where free lodging was furnished to men and beasts. 

 In Turkistan and Arabia all trade and travel was by similar cara- 

 vans until the railroad vvas opened across the desert by Merv and 

 the Oxus to Samarcand. 



Navigation was first by boat, and ages afterward by vessels. 

 The earliest vessels of which we have any account were employed 

 in carrying cattle down the Nile, and were propelled by sails 

 and rowers. The vessels, at first small and with few rowers, 

 were slowly increased in size and number of rowers until three, 

 four, and even five banks of oars, one over the other, were used. 

 They were often from 150 to 175 feet long, and from 18 to 26 feet 

 in breadth, drawing from 10 to 12 feet of water, and sometimes 

 carrying two hundred rowers and several hundred men. All these 

 ships were without decks, whether sailing on the Mediterranean 



