--601 nautical miles, a speed of 24.19 knots.

[8] In Congress the River and Harbor Bill always receives a generous
appropriation.

[9] In many instances goods designed for the spring trade in the Western
States are started via the canal in October, reaching their destination
at Chicago some time in April, the cargo having been frozen up in one or
another of the canal basins during the winter. The rate paid for this
slow transit is considerably less than the amount which otherwise would
have been paid for storage; moreover, it is nearly all clear profit to
the canal boatmen.

[10] The minimum depth of the canal is 22 feet; its width at the bottom
is 160 feet. It was begun September, 1892, and completed January 2,
1902, at a cost of thirty-four million dollars. More than forty million
cubic yards of earth and rock were excavated. All the bridges crossing
it are movable.

[11] This is on the supposition that night travel will be too dangerous
a risk. With a continuous travel the time would be about thirty-three
hours.

[12] On one great trunk system the average ton-mile rate in 1870 was one
and one-seventh cents; in 1900 it was just one-half that sum.

[13] The modern steam-making boiler has from thirty to one hundred or
more tubes passing through it from end to end. The heat from the
fire-box as a rule passes under the boiler and through the tubular
flues; it thus increases the heating surface very greatly. The forced
draught is made by allowing the exhaust steam to escape into the
smokestack, thereby increasing the draught through the fire-box.

[14] A single locomotive of the New York Central has hauled 4,000 tons
of freight at a speed of twenty-five miles an hour. A "camel-back" of
the Philadelphia & Reading hauled 4,800 tons of coal from the mines to
tide-water without a helper.

[15] The Vanderbilt boiler with cylindrical corrugated fire-box invented
by Cornelius Vanderbilt, great-grandson of the founder of the New York
Central, marks an important step in locomotive building. The cylindrical
form largely obviates the necessity of an array of stay-bolts to prevent
warping; the corrugated surface gives greater heating power.

[16] The Central-Atlantic type of locomotive illustrates a modern
improvement. The driving-wheels are placed a little forward of their
usual position, while the fire-box, formerly set between the wheels, now
overhangs each side of a pair of low trailing-wheels. By this means the
heatin