The railways are carried over the canal by lofty bridges, which had to be made very high to allow the masts of ocean ships to pass under them. Bays or sidings, where ships may pass each other, occur at intervals. Wharves and docks have been built at many points along the canal, which some day may be expected to appear one long seaport. Ellesmere Port, where the Ellesmere Canal and Ship Canal unite, has become a thriving place in recent years, and the trade of Runcorn has also been greatly increased by the canal. Large alkali works have been built at Weston Point, the most suitable place that could have been found for them, because they are equally near to the Lancashire coal-field on the one hand and to the salt beds of Cheshire on the other. The salt is brought in the form of brine direct from Northwich to the works by pipes laid underground, a great saving of money, for salt is heavy and costly to carry. Though the cotton industry was the one that was expected to gain most from the canal, the traffic is by no means confined to this commodity. Grain and cattle are brought from the United States and from South America, timber from Canada, and hides from the Argentine, and big cargoes of bananas, oranges, and apples, pass up the canal. In addition to this oversea traffic, the canal also has a great share of the coasting trade of the West of England, of which slates from Carnarvon, and china clay from Cornwall may be taken as the best examples. The triumphs of engineering and mechanical skill have improved our means of travelling from one place to another. The great engines that are now turned out from the locomotive sheds at Crewe are as vastly superior to the Rocket (models of which are now but a curiosity in our museums) as the twentieth-century motor-cycle is to the velocipede or wooden 'bone-shaker' that your fathers rode. Horse carriages are fast disappearing and giving place to the motor-car, and hansoms to the taxicab. The science of aviation is turning the inventive powers of men into new channels, and 'flying men' are showing to the world that the conquest of the air is but a matter of time. Before the reign of Queen Victoria, few of the children of the poorest classes were able either to read or write. Such education as these could receive was given in the Sunday Schools, which Robert Raikes had started in 1781. The children were hard at work in the mills all the week. Teachers volunteered for the work, which was carried on in cottages or disused factories. In 1805, Stockport built the big Sunday School which still remains, and a hundred thousand children have been grateful for the simple teaching given to them.