166 
Modern Business Geography 
the desert with loads of dates, wool, or cheese, meets a caravan of don- 
keys, the camels usually stalk calmly along, while the donkeys crowd 
this way and that, turn about, and perhaps go in the wrong direction. 
In some countries the ox is still in use. In Calcutta, for instance, 
from daybreak to sunset, long lines of two-wheeled bullock carts 
with white-clad Hindu drivers cross the bridge over one of the distrib- 
utaries of the united Ganges and Brahmaputra to the railroad sta- 
tion at Howrah. They keep to the left, according to the British rule, 
which prevails in most British colonies. Where an animal so slow as 
the ox is used for transportation, man power also is likely to be used 
a good deal. In Calcutta, now and then, four men can be seen bearing 
on their shoulders a pole from which is slung a sort of box containing a 
reclining passenger. 
Steamships. Steamships are the world’s long distance carriers. 
The average journey of freight in steamers is more than a thousand 
miles, and ten thousand is not uncommon. Though steamships are 
not so rapid as railroad trains, they cover long distances almost as 
quickly because they make few stops. They are very cheap, for a 
ton can be carried a mile in a steamship for only about one fifth of a 
cent, and In some cases for less than one tenth. 
Steamships sail on practically all the world’s navigable oceans, 
lakes, and rivers. By far the larger number, however, are found 
(1) on the coast of Europe from Norway to Portugal ; (2) on the American. 
Fic. 124. This Burmese junk of today is the type of vessel in which water-borne commerce of 
large parts of the world was carried for manv centuries.