[71] Those who are interested in perusing this Report will find it contained in a volume of pamphlets in the Library of the Royal Statistical Society. [72] The different river basins contributed the following proportions:— Basins. Tons. The Elbe 7,767,000 The Vistula, Niemen, &c. 2,227,000 The Oder 861,000 The Weser and Ems 394,000 Lake of Constance 338,000 The Danube 210,000 ────────── Total 11,797,000 [73] The distribution of this navigation is as follows, according to basins:— Basin. Miles of Navigation. The Rhine 931 The Elbe 870 The Oder 497 The Weser 280 The Danube 248 The Ems 196 Other waterways 372 ———— Total 3384 [74] On the railways of Germany in 1886 coal traffic was 48·5 per cent. of the whole; timber, 5·8 per cent.; stone, 7·5 per cent.; and grain 6·2 per cent. About 84·7 per cent. of the whole was heavy traffic. The total railway traffic was about 5½ times that of the total water traffic of the empire. [75] Not including sea tonnage. [76] Exclusive of arrivals and departures by rail from Dresden and Breslau. [77] Exclusive of arrivals and departures by rail from Dresden and Breslau. [78] Report of Messrs. Meyer and Werneigh. CHAPTER IX. THE WATERWAYS OF BELGIUM. The little kingdom of Belgium enjoys the advantage of having both a complete railway system and an excellent system of canal transport. There is, indeed, no country in Europe where the conditions of economical transportation have been more closely and more effectually studied. To this fact is largely to be attributed the unique position which Belgium holds among the industrial nations of the world. With limited coal resources, which are much behind those of some other European countries, alike as regards their quality and the economical conditions under which they can be mined; with iron ore supplies that are almost exhausted, and which only meet her own consumption to a very limited extent; with hardly any other mineral resources worth speaking of, excepting only certain deposits of zinc ores, Belgium has relatively a larger industrial population than any other country in Europe, and enjoys a degree of prosperity that is rare even in countries more liberally endowed with Nature’s gifts.