the extraordinary opportunities for navigation and transportation
afforded by the great waterways of the country. As railroads were
naturally built in the East before the West, the value of our Middle and
Western waterways is naturally best understood by the average reader,
because they continued to play an indispensable part in the transaction
of business of every character until quite a recent period.

The Eastern rivers are less magnificent in extent and volume than those
of the West, though many of them are picturesque and attractive in the
extreme. The Hudson has often been spoken of as the "Thames of America,"
not because there is any resemblance between the length of the two
rivers upon which are situated the two greatest cities of modern times.
The simile is the result rather of the immense number of costly family
residences and summer resorts built along the banks of both rivers.

In another chapter we say something of a trip down the picturesque
Hudson, whose banks are lined with historic landmarks and points of
pressing interest. We give an illustration of a pleasure boat on the
Hudson, which reminds one of many delightful river trips taken at
various periods, and also of the events of national importance which
centered around the river that is crowded, year after year, with
pleasure-seekers from the overcrowded metropolis at its mouth.

The Mississippi River is the largest and grandest in North America. A
few miles above St. Louis it is joined by the Missouri River, and if the
distance from the source of the latter to the Gulf of Mexico be
calculated, the longest river in the world is found. At a considerable
distance from the source of the Father of Waters are the Falls of St.
Anthony, discovered more than two hundred years ago by enterprising
pioneers, who thought they had discovered the headwaters of the great