H I S T O

R Y

O F

INLAND NAVIGATION.

CHAP. I.

Utility of Inland Navigation—Ancient Canals—Canals of Egypt—Accountof the Great Canal cut through the Isthmus of Suez , from Diodorus yHerodotus , and Strabo—Description of the Nilometer y or Inf rumens formeasuring the Inundation of the Nile .

HAT the greatest advantages are derived to mankind from naviga-

JL tion, which establishes an intercourse between all the differentinhabitants of the earth, and enables them to supply their mutual wants,by exchanging their various productions, is a position which no one willdispute. To the improvements made in that most useful art, are thecommercial nations of Europe principally indebted for their superiorityover the rest of the world in power and opulence, the consequence oftheir extensive trade, and the flourishing state of their manufactures.

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But what the ocean is to the distant countries it divides, navigablerivers and canals are to the different provinces and districts of the same

country; and as navigation on the former effects an intercourse, andmutual exchange of productions, between different kingdoms; in like

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manner