_Philadelphia_, on account of its distance inland, is not fortunately situated for ocean commerce. Steamships of deep draught reach their docks at the lower end of the city under their own steam, but sailing-craft pay heavy towage fees. There are regular lines to Liverpool, Antwerp, West Indian ports, Baltimore, and Boston. Philadelphia is the centre of the anthracite coal trade, and this is the chief factor of its domestic trade. The imports of fruit from the West Indies, carpet-wool from Europe, and raw sugar from the West Indies, form the greater part of its foreign business. The manufactures are mainly carpets and rugs, locomotives and iron steamships, and refined sugar. The carpet-weaving and the ship-building plants are among the largest in the world. The ocean movement of freight is more than three million five hundred thousand tons yearly. The business of the clearing-house in 1902 aggregated nearly six billion dollars. _Baltimore_ is likewise handicapped by its distance inland. Sailing-vessels, however, require only a short towage, the docks being scarcely a dozen miles from Chesapeake Bay. The harbor is deep and capacious. The Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio railway systems have made Baltimore an important railway centre. The completion of the Gould railway system to the Atlantic seaboard has made the city second to New York only in the export of corn, wheat, flour, and tobacco. The most noteworthy local industry is the oyster product, which is the greatest in the world. Nearly ten thousand people are employed, and during the busy season--from September to the end of April--about thirty carloads of oysters a day are shipped. [Illustration: CHARLESTON HARBOR] The yearly movement of marine freight, entering and clearing, aggregates about three million tons. In 1902 the clearing-house exchanges aggregated about two and one-quarter billion dollars. _Portland_, Me., has good harbor facilities, but is distant from the great lines of traffic. Steamship lines, which in summer make Montreal a terminal point, occasionally make Portland their winter harbor. _Newport News_, _Savannah_, _Charleston_, and _Brunswick_ are growing in importance as clearing ports for the cotton and produce from the region west of them. _Norfolk_ obtains importance on account of the United States Navy-Yard; it is also the great peanut-market of the world. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION What are the requisites of a good seaport? What is meant by the draught of a vessel? For what purposes are pilots? How are navigable channels marked and designated? From the Statistical Abstract find six or more of the leading exports from each of the following ports: New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and the port nearest which you live. FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE Statistical Abstract of the United States. Statesman's Year-Book. Industrial Evolution of the United States--Chapter II. CHAPTER XVIII