232 
BAKER. 
canal was then called, was being pushed forward with great 
energy. The object of this canal, as Morse tells us, was “ to 
turn the trade of the western country from Montreal to New 
York.” 
In 1791 there were only 89 post-offices in the United States. 
Twenty-five years later, in 1817, there were 39 times as 
many ; 3,459. Each day in the year (1791) the mails were 
carried 10,000 miles by stages and 11,000 on horseback 
and in sulkies. Mail was carried along one continuous 
route from Anson, in the district of Maine, via Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., to Nashville, Tennessee, 1,448 miles; an¬ 
other mail route was from St. Marys, Georgia, via Washing¬ 
ton, D. C., to Highgate, in Vermont, 1,369 miles. These were 
the longest mail routes in the United States. Postage stamps 
were 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 
internal communication by canals and national highways 
which had hitherto filled the imaginations of statesmen and 
publicists. 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 geographic research, which has 
continued undiminished to our own day. 
The twelfth edition of a school book on geography by 
Daniel Adams appeared at Boston in 1830. This book ap¬ 
pears 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, although with a favorable wind they will sometimes descend in 
12 hours. From New Orleans to Natchez, 310 miles, the voyage requires 
from 60 to 80 days. Ships rarely ascend above that place. It is naviga¬ 
ble for boats carrying about 40 tons and rowed by 18 or 20 men to the 
falls of St. Anthony. From New Orleans to the Illinois the voyage is per¬ 
formed in about 8 or 10 weeks. Many of these difficulties, however, now 
are happily overcome, and much is gained by the successful introduction 
of steam navigation.” 
