Hydrology Newsletter

The history of transportation is largely the history of material progress. It is difficult to imagine a prosperous society without the knowledge of the arts and sciences for commerce. The natural arrangement of land and water is not the most convenient for commerce and travel, as oceans and seas have unsuitable routes, and rivers are often rocky and shallow. Knowledge of roads, bridges, and canals has been acquired and slowly applied, but the aboriginal inhabitants of a country usually cared for none of these things. Man eventually established a system of interchange of commodities, which led to the creation of roadways over which traffic could be rudely transported on the backs of mules, horses, or other beasts of burden. As exchange and barter extended, the pack-horse became inefficient, and districts near the sea or placed on navigable rivers with easy access to the ocean became developed at the expense of other districts with equal facilities except transport. This book that I am d...