The vast extension, and the new channels, of our foreign commerce have been greatly affected by the prodigious facilities of our internal communication. They have created, in a measure, special departments of industry, which can be most advantageously pursued in particular localities; but which railways and steam-vessels have united with the whole kingdom, with its colonies, with the habitable globe. The reindeer connects the Laplander with the markets of Sweden, and draws his sledge over the frozen wilds at a speed and power of continuance only rivalled by the locomotive. The same beneficent Providence which has given this animal to the inhabitant of the polar regions,--not only for food, for clothing, but for transport to associate him with some civilization,--has bestowed upon us the mighty power of steam, to connect us with the entire world, from which we were once held to be wholly separated. [Illustration: Beaver.] CHAPTER XIV. Houses--The pyramids--Mechanical power--Carpenters' tools--American machinery for building--Bricks--Slate-- Household fittings and furniture--Paper-hangings-- Carpets--Glass--Pottery--Improvements effected through the reduction or repeal of duties on domestic requirements. The beaver builds his huts with the tools which nature has given him. He gnaws pieces of wood in two with his sharp teeth, so sharp that the teeth of a similar animal, the agouti, form the only cutting-tool which some rude nations possess. When the beavers desire to move a large piece of wood, they join in a body to drag it along. Man has not teeth that will cut wood: but he has reason, which directs him to the choice of much more perfect tools. [Illustration: Pyramid and sphinx]