rest. But in its present aspect it is of vast moment, both national
and international. While many overcrowded portions of the Old World are
often confronted with both the spectre and the reality of gaunt famine,
and their breadless thousands are looking wistfully to the fresh and
prolific fields of the New, for relief, there are annually lost to the
country and the world vast stores of corn, which the Western farmers
cannot afford to send by railroad to the seaboard for foreign shipment,
and freely use as a substitute for fuel. This fact is suggestive and
significant. To understand its import we have only to look at the
geographical position of the West and the Mississippi Valley, isolated
in the heart of a continent.

There are three outlets for the commerce of these sections seeking New
York, the emporium of the New World, and the chief trans-Atlantic
markets: 1. By the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and thence by
transhipment to New York and Europe. 2. By the northern lakes to the St.
Lawrence Valley, or by the former to the Erie Canal. 3. By the costly
transportation of railroads over the Alleghanies or along the
lake-shores eastward.

[Illustration: THE CANAL BASIN AT LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA.]

The first of these routes is of course the longest, both in time and
distance. It takes the merchandise by an extensive detour, which, from
the mouth of the Ohio River, _via_ the Gulf, to New York, exceeds three
thousand miles. Although lying in the powerful current of the Gulf
Stream, which is a propelling force speeding forward the vessel that
trusts its warm, blue waters, this route is exposed to the most violent
cyclonic storms, and navigators shun and evade it during the equinoctial
or hurricane season. But, barring danger and distance, no country with
such an outlet to the sea as the Mississippi River affords can be
considered dependent upon any artificial communication. Notwithstanding
the objections which exist to this long route (which is both expensive
and long), its trade is rapidly increasing from the very exigencies of
the case. The introduction of the barge-system on the great Western
rivers has greatly facilitated and cheapened transportation. Steam-tugs,
carrying neither passengers nor freight, are substituted for the
steamboat. These tugs never stop except to coal and attach the barges,
already loaded before their arrival at a city, and proceed with great
despatch. Steaming steadily on, night and day, they