Franklin, the first great typical American, was interested in science,--not so much the abstract principles as the practical application of those principles so as to increase the comfort and well-being of people. This was true, also, of Jefferson, another great typical American. From those days to the present time, this practical turn has been characteristic of American talent. Sometimes it has been said in reproach that America stands for progress in material ways, that her men of science care, not for abstract truth, but for its market value. Let us remember, however, that whenever a great cause or principle has needed support, Americans have always risen to the occasion. Material progress and business ability are good things, if only we do not overestimate their value in comparison with others. In so large a country as America, the question of methods of travel and means of transportation was of course important from the first. Water-ways were the natural and most convenient mode of communication. If you will look on a map of the colonies, you will see how the settlements clung to water-lines--ocean, lake, and river. Before the Revolution, men went to and fro as they had done for hundreds even thousands of years. On the water they traveled by slow boats, propelled by oars or sails. On the land they journeyed on foot, or horseback, or in rude vehicles, over roads which were generally rough and bad and often dangerous. It was so expensive to carry goods to and fro that their carriage within the limits of a state might cost more than the value of the goods. It cost, for instance, two dollars and a half a bushel to carry salt three hundred miles in the state of New York. People who moved from the eastern to the western part of the state could not afford to carry their household goods. They had to be carried by boat from New York to Albany, hauled to Schenectady, carried in boats up the Mohawk River and on a small canal to Utica, then hauled overland to Rome, and carried again in boats down a small canal and creek to Oneida Lake, thence by water to Lake Ontario. During the early part of the nineteenth century, in three ways travel and hauling were made easier and cheaper. The simplest of these was by the extensive use of canals. A canal is a trench filled with water deep enough to carry well-laden boats. The boats are drawn by horses which travel along a path called a “tow path.” In most cases the boats are moved up and down inclines by means of what are called “locks” on the canal. It is usually cheaper to haul goods by canals than by natural streams as the locks make the water lift or lower loads on inclines.