The Use of Ships 
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[requently may whiz past a line of slowly moving canal boats laden 
with heavy freight like coal, bricks, and cement. In Europe, railways 
and canals frequently run side by side, for wherever it is easy to lo- 
cate a canal it is also easy to build railway tracks. Both means of 
transportation can prosper, since they carry different kinds of freight 
and compete with one another relatively little. 
The canals and navigable rivers of Europe are so numerous that 
canal boats can take on loads at Marseilles, for instance, and deliver 
them a thousand miles away at Breslau. An intricate system of more 
than 150,000 miles of canals and navigable rivers covers the north- 
ern lowlands of Europe. From western France through Belgium, 
Holland, and Germany practically all the important rivers are con- 
nected by canals. There is even a limited canal connection between 
the principal rivers of Russia as far eastward as the Ural Mountains. 
Why the use of American canals has declined. Nearly five thou- 
sand miles of canals have been constructed in the United States, but 
only half of this mileage is now in use. This decline is due largely to 
the following causes : 
(1) Canal transportation has proved too slow to meet the needs of 
the impatient American. 
The depth of water varies from canal to canal, which necessitates 
much transshipment, entailing great delay and expense; in a 
country as large as the United States. uninterrupted through 
traffic is very important. 
The winter suspension of traffic due to ice is particularly pro- 
longed in the canals of the central and northeastern parts of 
the country. 
Canal traffic has often been forced to take roundabout routes 
because of the limited development of the canal system. 
By far the most important cause of the decline of canals, however, 
has been competition with the railroads. As railroads spread 
over the country, they were found to be largely free from the 
four drawbacks mentioned above; and this drove out of busi- 
ness the canals that were not particularly well located. About 
half the canals, however, especially the Erie Canal. were so 
well located that they survived. 
&) 
Our chief canals. The Erie Barge Canal, the longest in the United 
States, replaces the old Erie Canal. With a depth of 12 feet and a 
bottom width of 75, it enables barges of 2000 tons capacity to go from 
I'roy on the Hudson River to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. A branch 
extends from Troy to Lake Champlain, and thence to the St. Lawrence