Abstract
AFTER a long period of effacement, artificial waterways are beginning to regain some amount of public interest and concern. The advent and rapid development of railways during the last century was responsible for their relegation into a background of indifference and neglect, and so long as men's minds were dominated by schemes of rapid locomotion at any cost, it was difficult, and, in fact, impossible, for canals to maintain any footing in competition with a system of transit infinitely more expeditious and direct. But a change is taking place in public feeling. It is being recognised that canals have been at an undue disadvantage, and that, as a means of locomotion, they possess features which merit encouragement and development. Inland water carriage for goods, though slow, is safe and cheap, and canals possess a striking advantage over railways in that, in place of isolated depôts at long intervals, they possess a continuous frontage workable throughout their entire length. On these and other grounds, public interest in canals has been aroused, and a Royal Commission in this country has lately had under consideration the means best adapted for their revival and amelioration.
Artificial Waterways and Commercial Development (with a History of the Erie Canal).
By Dr. A. Barton Hepburn. Pp. ix+115. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price 4s. net.
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Artificial Waterways and Commercial Development (with a History of the Erie Canal). Nature 80, 307 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/080307a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/080307a0