50 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF 



which penetrate by their branches all its recesses, facihtate its domestic ex- 

 changes, and bear all its products to the Ocean. 



In truth, the internal navigation of the country must be always regarded as 

 the arterial circulation of its wealth and commerce ; and whatever will improve 

 that navigation, deserves the care and patronage of the people and those to 

 whom the people confide the protection of their interests. 



It has been estimated by Col. Long that the western I'ivers afford a develop- 

 ment of 16,674 miles of steamboat navigation;* while the commerce of these 

 rivers, for the year 1843, according to the estimate submitted to the Senate by 

 Mr. Barrow, possessed a value of more than ^220,000,000.f 



The navigation of nearly all the streams bearing this vast and rapidly 

 increasing commerce is interrupted during more than one third of the year by 

 the want of water, or by ice, which accumulates to an injurious extent because 

 of the want of water. This interruption is equivalent in its effects to an annual 

 tax upon the industry of the country equal to one-third the yearly expense of 

 maintaining all the steamboats that are subject to the detention, together with 

 the value of the delay upon all the property that is exposed and detained, and 

 that of the deterioration and early destruction of all the boats that are compelled 

 to run when there is too little water to float them safely. 



The number of boats navigating the western rivers is, probably, at this time, 

 not less than 1,000; and it is estimated, partly from accurate official data, and 

 partly from conjectural data based upon official returns, that the total loss from 

 wrecks of steamboats on these waters, for the year 1848 alone, amounted to 

 $2,000,000. 



There are no data for determining the loss consequent upon the detention of 

 the boats ; but as the delay falls chiefly upon the largest steamers, which are 

 always first arrested, the loss must greatly exceed the actual cost of maintaining 

 one-third of all the boats in use on the western waters. But if this item be 

 only equal to the cost of maintaining and running 750 boats one-third of the 

 year, or 250 boats of average value the whole year, it will amount to not less 

 than $3,000,000 per annum, over and above the loss now sustained on the pro- 

 perty conveyed, and that on the commerce which cannot be conveyed. 



By upholding the draught in the channel, the cost of transportation — which 

 now fluctuates between 8 cents and $1.75 per hundred pounds from Pittsburg 

 to Cincinnati — could be maintained with profit to the carrier at about the 

 lowest present charge, and the whole business of the valley would expe- 

 rience a corresponding increase consequent on the reduction of the cost of 

 freight. A vastly increased tonnage would necessarily be conveyed at greatly 

 reduced rates. The business of the transporter would become more certain 

 and more stable ; lines would be established to act with regularity and^ 

 despatch, and every department of agriculture and commerce, through all the 



* Report of the Commissioner of Patents, of December 30, 1848. 



t Report of the Committee of Commerce, (Senate,) February 9, 1S43. 



