2 * 
TRAVELS 
apparently deftined to cut off all communication between coun¬ 
tries, through the exertion and ingenuity of man, is converted into 
a vaft and unbounded medium of their intercourfe. I do not re¬ 
coiled; any thing that exhibits fo fenfible and firiking a triumph 
of art over nature, except perhaps the afeent of the balloon into 
the atmofphere: though this indeed is to be ranked among dif- 
coveries rather than inventions; and has not by any means given 
birth to fuch a variety of ingenious contrivances as have been dif- 
played in the application of the polarity of the magnet, and of lu¬ 
nar obfervations ; in the extenfion of canals by the perforation of 
hills; in the erection of bridges, waterlocks, andfluices; and in 
the conftrudion, equipage , and navigation of fhips. 
The firft ideas, or the firfl elements as it were, of navigation, 
are prefented to man in his primitive, rude, and fimple date. 
Without entering into the queftion, whether man is or was ori¬ 
ginally an amphibious animal, as has been maintained by one or 
two whimfical writers, we find that the uncivilized tribes are the 
moft expert fwimmers and divers. They live much in the water 
and on the w r ater in queft of fillies, in rivers, lakes, and inlets of 
the fea. A tree or log, torn from the margin of fome w 7 ood by 
the violence of a torrent or a florm, and floating near them on 
the furface of the w r ater, prefents itfelf as a kind of refting place, 
where the exertions of the limbs and arms may be fufpended. If 
trees or beams can bear up a man in the water, it occurs at once 
that they will alfo bear up other things. They arc immediately 
ufed for this purpofe. The firfi: boats accordingly, as we find 
from 
