The United States— Land and Waters 



73 



mous quantities of our chilled meats, 

 which, they assert, are superior in qual- 

 ity to the frozen article. We are not 

 compelled to freeze our meats to send 

 them to Europe but the consignments 

 are placed on steamships in chilled rooms 

 whose low but not freezing temperature 

 keeps them in good condition. When 

 we remember that our foreign meat trade 

 is a very important element in our com- 

 merce we can realize the inestimable ad- 

 vantage of not being compelled to carry 

 this commodity across the tropics. 



The United States, as well as all the 

 other greatest commercial nations, fronts 

 on the Atlantic making that ocean the 

 preeminent highway of sea trade. A few 

 3 - ears ago, a patient and laborious Ger- 

 man set himself the task of ascertaining 

 approximately the amount of business 

 activity on the Atlantic. After collect- 

 ing many facts he reached the conclu- 

 sion that there are always afloat on that 

 ocean about 50,000 vessels of one sort 

 or another and that its floating popula- 

 tion is constantly about 300,000 human 

 beings. The value of the Atlantic for 

 sea trade is increased by the fact that 

 most of the great navigable rivers be- 

 long to the Atlantic drainage basin. All 

 the great rivers of Europe, except the 

 Volga, of Africa, except the Zambesi, 

 and of America south of Alaska are trib- 

 utary to the Atlantic. The Yangtse of 

 China is the only river of the first class 

 and of great commercial importance that 

 is tributary to the Pacific. The Indian 

 Ocean finds feeders for its trade in the 

 Menam, the Irawadi, the Ganges and 

 the Indus; but the great rivers of north- 

 ern Asia are frozen two-thirds of the 

 year and empty into seas that are likely 

 to be ice-choked at all seasons. We 

 shall see a little later how wonderfully 

 helpful are our rivers in contributing to 

 our large share in the sea trade of the 

 Atlantic. 



HARBORS OF THE UNITED STATES 



We are blessed with an abundance of 

 good natural harbors to serve our com- 



merce on this highway. Most of the 

 largest and best of them are exactly 

 where they maybest serve our trade — on 

 our northeast coast fronting the great- 

 est commercial nations of Europe, with 

 whom we have the largest dealings. On 

 the whole, our harbors are naturally 

 better than those of Europe; the result 

 is that though nearly all harbors require 

 large expenditure to fit them for ship- 

 ping and to make good the deteriora- 

 tion that is constantly in progress, our 

 disbursements for these purposes are 

 not nearly so great as they are in Eu- 

 rope. Since the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey was organized New York Bay 

 has been resurveyed five times to indi- 

 cate the positions of needed improve- 

 ments. The work of deepening and 

 extending the channels of New York 

 Harbor in progress for several years past 

 may cost from $7,000,000 to $8,000,000 

 before it is completed ; but Liverpool 

 Harbor has cost, from first to last, over 

 $200,000,000, more than half of which 

 has been expended in the last forty-five 

 3'ears. 



The great distinction between our 

 leading seaports and those of Europe is 

 that we have only to improve our natu- 

 ral harbors while the nations over the 

 sea must make their great ports. Eu- 

 rope can show no ports like those of 

 Puget Sound and San Francisco which 

 will admit the largest vessels without 

 deepening the channel ; and our other 

 largest ports may attain the same degree 

 of efficiency at a total cost that seems 

 small in comparison with the vast sums 

 spent at Liverpool alone. London, New- 

 castle and Cardiff , as seaports, are largely 

 artificial creations, the result of im- 

 provements made at enormous cost. 

 The port of London extends from Lon- 

 don Bridge to the mouth of the Thames 

 but no vessel drawing more than 26 

 feet can ascend to London except at 

 high tide ; at other times large ships 

 must stop at Tilbury Docks, 35 miles 

 down the river. Glasgow deepened and 

 widened the little ditch of the Clyde till 



