J. Stephen Jeans
Published: 2015-08-06
Total Pages: 538
Get eBook
Excerpt from Waterways and Water Transport in Different Countries: With a Description of the Panama, Suez, Manchester, Nicaraguan, and Other Canals It would probably be difficult to name any subject that is of more importance to the material interest of a country than adequate mean of transport. Without such means, nations possessed of the most abundant natural resources in many other respects would be likely to decay. With ample facilities of transport, however, the most limited natural resources may be made to go a long way, and nations that are not possessed of great natural endowments may even rise to a high place in the economy of human industry. Transportation facilities naturally divide themselves into the two categories of facilities by land and facilities by water. The former category embraces highways and railroads; the latter includes the navigation of seas, lakes, rivers, and canals. It is the purpose of this volume to deal with water transport only, and more particularly that part of water transport which is carried on by means of artificial waterways. Railway transport, therefore, will only be incidentally referred to. Nor do we propose to expatiate to any extent upon the navigation of seas and lakes, which is a matter quite apart from canal and river navigation, and is usually carried on under very different conditions. Canals are usually ranged under one or other of three great categories, namely: - 1. For purposes of navigation. 2. For irrigation, and 3. For domestic water supply. Under the first heading there are many different descriptions of waterways, the more important being - a. Canals intended for the purpose of connecting oceans or seas, such as those of Suez, Panama, the North Sea, and Nicaragua. b. Canals for the purpose of bringing the sea to an inland town, such as those of Manchester and St. Petersburg. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.