32

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION.

canals; the present state of commerce requiresthat goods should be conveyed from place toplace with the utmost rapidity, and, perhaps,Ave owe no small portion of mercantile pros-perity to our facility of dispatch. The slow,tardy, and interrupted transit by canal navi-gation must, therefore, of necessity yield toother modes affording a more rapid means ofconveyance, (especially when their relativeeconomy is the same) unless they can be madeto partake of the general activity, and addi-tional celerity given to the boats conveyedupon them. Experiments, to ascertain theamount of resistance, at different rates of speed,would be therefore highly valuable ; and, it isto be hoped, that such will be made on a prac-tical scale upon some of the canals, to shewhow far they are capable of affording a morespeedy transit.