Читать книгу Commercial Geography - Jacques W. Redway - Страница 17

THE COMMERCE OF THE OHIO—TOWING COAL TO THE STEEL MILLS, PITTSBURG

In the United States the Great Lakes with the Erie Canal and Hudson River form the most important internal water-way, and by them the continent is penetrated as far west as Duluth, a distance of more than one thousand three hundred miles. The traffic passing out of Lake Superior alone is about one-third greater than that passing out of the Mediterranean Sea at the Suez Canal. Much of this traffic goes across the continent, and the route in question is one of the great commercial highways of the world.

The Mississippi River and its branches afford not far from ten thousand miles of navigable waters. Canals connect tributaries of this river with the Great Lakes at Chicago and at several points in Ohio. The development of the navigation of this great water-way was checked by the Civil War, and after the close of the war the great advance in railway building kept its improvement in the background. The general government, nevertheless, has done much to encourage the use of the Mississippi as a commercial highway, and many millions of dollars have been spent in widening and deepening its channel.[8] On the upper river grain and lumber form the chief traffic; on the lower part a large part of the world's cotton-crop starts on its journey to the various markets.

On account of the soft-coal fields and the steel manufacture in western Pennsylvania, the commerce of the Ohio River is very heavy, aggregating not far from fifteen million tons yearly. Much of this traffic extends to ports on the Mississippi.

The navigable parts of the Hudson and Delaware Rivers are estuaries of the sea or "drowned valleys." In each case navigation extends about to the limits of high tide. Both rivers carry a heavy freight commerce; the Hudson has a passenger traffic of several million fares each year. Nearly every river of the Atlantic coast is navigable to the limit of high tide or a little beyond. Navigation extends to the point where the coast-plain joins the foot-hills. Above this limit, called the "Fall Line," the streams are swift and shallow; below it they are deep and sluggish. As a result, a chain of important river ports extends along the Fall Line from Maine to Florida.

River-navigation in Europe in the main is inseparably connected with the great canal systems. As a rule, the lower parts of the rivers are navigable for steamboats of light draught. Some of the smaller streams are made navigable by means of a long steel chain, which is laid along the bed of the stream; the boat engages the chain by means of heavy sprocket wheels driven by steam, and thus wind the boat up and down the river.

Ocean steamers penetrate the Amazon Valley to a distance of one thousand miles from its mouth; boats of light draught ascend the main stream and some of its tributaries a thousand miles farther. The Orinoco is navigable within one hundred miles of Bogota. Light-draught boats ascend the tributaries of La Plata River a distance of fifteen hundred miles.

The Asian rivers that are important highways of commerce are few in number. The Amur, Yangtze, Indus, and Cambodia have each considerable local commerce. The Hugli, a channel in the delta of the Ganges, has a channel deep enough for ocean steamships. The tributaries of the Lena, Yenisei, and Ob have been of the greatest service in the commercial development of northern Asia from the fact that their valleys are both level and fertile.

Because of a high interior and abrupt slopes, the rivers of Africa are not suitable for navigation to any considerable extent; the channels are uncertain and the rivers are interrupted by rapids. The Nile has an occasional steamboat service as far as the "First Cataract," but in high water the service is sometimes extended farther. The Kongo has a long stretch of navigable water, but is interrupted by rapids below Stanley Pool. Similar conditions obtain in the Zambezi. The lower part of the Senegal affords good navigation. The Niger has in many respects greater commercial possibilities than other rivers of Africa. It is navigable to a distance of three hundred miles.

Canals.—Canals easily rank among the most important means of traffic, as a rule, supplementing other navigable waters. Thus, by means of an elaborate system of canals, goods are transferred by water, from one river-basin to another, so that practically all the navigable streams of western Europe are connected. Canals are extensively used to avoid the falls or rapids that separate the various reaches of rivers. The water itself by means of locks lifts the boat to a higher level or transfers it to a lower reach, thus saving the expense of unloading, transferring, and reloading a cargo.

The manner in which canals supplement the obstructed navigation of a river is seen in the case of the St. Lawrence. This river is obstructed in several places by rapids, but by means of canals steamship service connects the Great Lakes, not only with Quebec, but with ports of the Mediterranean Sea as well; indeed, it is possible to send a cargo from Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, to Odessa or Batum, on the shores of the Black Sea.

The internal water-ways of Canada have been splendidly developed. The Canadian St. Marys Canal furnishes an outlet to Lake Superior for vessels drawing twenty-one feet. The Welland Canal connects Lakes Erie and Ontario. The Rideau Canal and River connect Kingston and Lake Ontario with the Ottawa, and the latter with its canals is navigable to the St. Lawrence. With a population of less than six millions the Dominion Government has spent nearly one hundred million dollars in the improvement of internal water-ways.

PROFILE OF ERIE CANAL HORIZONTAL SCALE 100 MILES TO THE INCH, VERTICAL SCALE 1,000 FEET TO THE INCH

In the United States the possible development of canals has been neglected and, to a certain extent, stifled by railway building. The Erie Canal, built before the advent of the railway, connects Lake Erie with tide-water at Albany, a distance of 387 miles. For many years it was the chief means of traffic between the Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic seaboard, and although paralleled by the six tracks of a great railway system, it is still an important factor in the carriage of grain and certain classes of slow freight.[9] The level way that made the canal possible is largely responsible for the decline of its importance, for the absence of steep grades enables a powerful locomotive to haul so many cars that the quick transit more than overbalances a very low ton rate by the canal.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, designed to connect the Mississippi Valley with the Atlantic seaboard, fared much worse than the Erie Canal. Less than two hundred miles have been completed, and practically no work except that of repair has been done since 1850; the heavy grades between Cumberland and Pittsburg render its completion improbable.

An excellent system of canals, the Ohio and Erie and the Miami and Erie, connect the Ohio River with Lake Erie. These canals are in the State of Ohio and aggregate about six hundred miles in length. They are important as coal and ore carriers. Several hundred miles of canals were built along the river-valleys of eastern Pennsylvania before 1840 for carrying coal to tide-water. Most of them have been abandoned; one, the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., survives as a railway. Inasmuch as the coal went on a down grade from the mines to the markets, it could be carried more economically by railway than by canal.

Of far greater importance are the St. Marys Canal on the Canadian side, and the St. Marys Falls Canal on the American side, of St. Marys River. These canals obviate the falls in St. Marys River and form the commercial outlet of Lake Superior. The tonnage of goods, mainly iron ore and coal, is about one-half greater than that of the Suez Canal. About twenty-five thousand vessels pass through these canals yearly.

The Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal,[10] from Lake Michigan to Lockport, on the Illinois River, was designed mainly to carry the sewage of Chicago which, prior to the construction of the canal, was poured into the lake through the Chicago River. The completion of the canal turned the course of the river and caused the water to flow out of the lake, carrying the city's sewage. It is intended to complete a navigable water-way from Chicago to St. Louis deep enough for vessels drawing fourteen feet. Its value is therefore strategic as well as industrial, for by means of it gun-boats may readily pass from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes.

Oceanic canals are designed both for naval strategic purposes and for industrial uses. Thus, the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, from the mouth of the Elbe to Kiel Bay, across the base of Jutland, saves two days between Hamburg and the Baltic ports. It also enables German war-vessels to concentrate quickly in either the North or the Baltic Sea. The Manchester Ship Canal makes Manchester a seaport and saves the cost of trans-shipping freights by rail from Liverpool. The Corinth Canal across the isthmus that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece affords a much shorter route between Italian ports and Odessa. The North Holland Ship Canal makes Amsterdam practically a seaport.

Probably no other highway of commerce since the discovery of the Cape route around Africa has caused such a great change and readjustment of trade between Europe and Asia as the Suez Canal. Sailing-vessels still take the Cape route, because the heavy towage tolls through the canal more than offset the gain in time. Steamships have their own power and generally take the canal route, thereby saving about ten days in time and fuel, and about four thousand eight hundred miles in distance. In spite of the heavy tolls the saving is considerable. About three thousand five hundred vessels pass through the canal yearly.

The Suez Canal, constructed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, for some time was under the control of French capitalists. Subsequently, by the purchase of stock partly in open market and partly from the Khedive of Egypt, the control of the canal passed into the hands of the English. The restrictions placed upon the passage of war-ships is such that the canal would be of little use to nations at war.

THE ROUTE OF THE PANAMA CANAL

The necessity of an interoceanic canal across the American continent has become more imperative year by year for fifty years. The discovery of gold in California caused an emigration from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast which resulted in a permanent settlement of the latter region. A railway across the Isthmus of Panama and another across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec have afforded very poor means of communication between oceans.

In 1881 work on a tide-level canal across the Isthmus of Panama was begun, but the plan was afterward changed to a high-level canal. The change was thought necessary partly on account of the great cost of the former, and partly because of the difficulties of constructing so deep a cut—about three hundred and forty feet—at the summit of the Culebra ridge. The construction company, after spending the entire capital—about one hundred and twenty million dollars—in accomplishing one-tenth of the work, became bankrupt. The United States subsequently purchased the franchise.

A canal by way of Lake Nicaragua has also been projected, and two treaties with Great Britain, whereby the United States agreed to build no fortifications to guard it, have been made. No work beyond the surveys has yet been undertaken, however. The cost of each canal is estimated between one hundred and fifty million and two hundred million dollars. The Panama route will require about twelve hours for the passage of a vessel; the Nicaragua route about sixty hours.[11] (See map, p. 270.)

The completion of a canal by either route will cause a readjustment of the world's commerce far greater than that which followed the construction of the Suez Canal. By such a route San Francisco is brought nearer to London than Calcutta now is, and the all-water route between the Atlantic ports of the United States and those of China and Japan will be shortened by upward of eight thousand miles. The importance of the Hawaiian Islands, already a great ocean depot, will be greatly increased, and the latter is becoming one of the great commercial stations of the world.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

What were some of the effects which resulted from the various embargo and non-intercourse acts that preceded the war of 1812?

What is the effect upon an industry when all means of getting the products to market are cut off?

In the early history of the country rivers were the most important highways of commerce; obtain an account of some instance of this in detail.

Certain commodities have been carried about four-fifths of the distance between Moscow and Vladivostok by water, across Siberia. Illustrate this, using the map of the Russian Empire, plate, p. 342.

What has been the effect of cheap steel on ocean navigation?

Discuss the difference between a screw-steamship and a side-wheeler; a ship and a schooner. How are vessels steered?

How does a triple-expansion engine differ from an ordinary steam-engine?

Cargoes are carried by water across Europe from Havre to Marseilles, and from The Hague to the mouth of the Danube; illustrate the route on a map of Europe.

The following instruction occasionally is found in the pilothouse of a vessel—what is its meaning?

"Green to green and red to red—

Perfect safety; go ahead."

From the chart on p. 49 show how a pilot uses the range lights in entering New York Harbor.

The new freighter Minnesota is designed to carry a load of 30,000 tons; how many trains of fifty cars, each car holding 30,000 pounds, are required to furnish her cargo?

From the map on pp. x-xi describe the new ocean routes that will be created by an interoceanic canal across the American continent.

FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE

Photographs or illustrations of various steam and sailing craft.

An Atlantic Coast Pilot Chart—any month.

A map showing the canals of the United States.

A map showing the canals of Europe.

A MODERN LOCOMOTIVE—THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LIMITED AT A SPEED EXCEEDING NINETY MILES AN HOUR