A glance at a map of the United States will suffice to show that it has unique natural facilities for water transport. Its great lakes, which are inland seas of no inconsiderable dimensions, now connected together by the Erie and St. Mary’s Falls Canals, its magnificent rivers, such as the Mississippi and the Missouri, and the natural configuration of the country, create an _ensemble_ for cheap transportation such as no other country can surpass. Besides these resources, however, the United States have now a railway system of over 160,000 miles. The same favoured country has a large number of noble rivers, as well as a magnificent system of lakes. Of these, the most important is the Mississippi, which has a drainage area, estimated at 1,261,000 miles, and which, including its tributaries, has about 15,000 miles of navigable waters. A large portion is, however, closed at low water. From the source of its great tributary, the Missouri, to the Gulf of Mexico, its outlet, the Mississippi has a length of 4194 miles. It may, however, be maintained that the Mississippi is less a single river than the outlet of a number of rivers, each of considerable importance. The Missouri river has a drainage area of 518,000 square miles, and 3500 miles of navigable waters, while the Ohio river, which has the next most important basin, drains an area of 214,000 square miles, and has 5000 miles of navigation. The smaller tributaries include the Arkansas river, the Med river, the Yazoo, and the St. Francis. The navigation of the Mississippi river has for a number of years past been under the control of a special Government Commission, by whom the mouth of the river has been dredged, training walls have been built, shifting sandbars have been regulated, and dams thrown across to concentrate the low-water flow in the main channel. On the Upper Mississippi, St. Anthony’s Falls oppose a barrier which has been overcome by a canal and locks. In no country has there been a longer or more severe struggle between canals and railroads than in the United States of North America. In no country have both systems of transportation had a more eventful, instructive, and interesting history. In no country have railroads and canals been afforded equally free scope for development, and in no country have transportation rates been cut so fine and reduced so low. We may, therefore, by a consideration of the conditions of transport in the United States, and especially by seeking to ascertain how far the two great systems of internal communication have competed with each other, learn something that will throw a good deal of light on this problem.