OOTNOTES:

[Footnote AV: By the published class-list the numbers at present are
224.]

[Footnote AW: An account of a visit to this Academy, from the pen of Sir
J. Alexander, is published in Golburn's _United Service Magazine,_
September, 1854.]

CHAPTER XXIII.

_Watery Highways and Metallic Intercourse._

There is perhaps scarcely any feature in which the United States differ
more from the nations of the Old World, than in the unlimited extent of
their navigable waters, the value of which has been incalculably
increased by the introduction of steam. By massing these waters
together, we shall be the better able to appreciate their importance;
but in endeavouring to do this, I can only offer an approximation as to
the size of the lakes, from the want of any official information, in the
absence of which I am forced to take my data from authorities that
sometimes differ widely. I trust the following statement will be found
sufficiently accurate to convey a tolerably correct idea.

The seaboard on each ocean may be estimated at 1500 miles; the
Mississippi and its tributaries, at 17,000 miles; Lake Ontario, at 190
miles by 50; Lake Erie, at 260 miles by 60; Lake Huron, at 200 miles by
70; the Georgian Bay, at 160 miles, one half whereof is about 50 broad;
Lake Michigan, at 350 miles by 60; and Lake Superior, at 400 miles by
160, containing 32,000 square miles, and almost capable of floating
England, if its soil were as buoyant as its credit. All the lakes
combined contain about 100,000 square miles. The rate at which the
tonnage upon them is increasing, appears quite fabulous. In 1840 it
amounted to 75,000 tons, from which it had risen in 1850 to 216,000
tons. Besides the foregoing, there are the eastern rivers, and the deep
bays on the ocean board. Leaving, however, these latter out of the
question, let us endeavour to realize in one sum the extent of soil
benefited by this bountiful provision of Providence; to do which it is
necessary to calculate both sides of the rivers and the shores of the
lakes, which, of course, must be of greater extent than double the
length of the lakes: nevertheless, if we estimate them at only double,
we shall find that there are 40,120 miles washed by their navigable
waters; and by the constitution of the Union these waters are declared
to be "common property, for ever free, without any tax, duty, or impost
whatever."

The Americans are not free from the infirmities of human nat