Page:On the economy of machinery and manufactures - Babbage - 1846.djvu/261

Rh crew two thousand miles up this stream. The same voyage is now performed in fifteen days by large vessels impelled by steam, carrying hundreds of passengers enjoying all the comforts and luxuries of civilized life. Instead of the hut of the Indian,—and the far more unfrequent log-house of the thinly scattered settlers,—villages, towns, and cities, have arisen on its banks; and the same engine which stems the force of these powerful waters, will probably tear from their bottom the obstructions which have hitherto impeded and rendered dangerous their navigation.

(279.) The accumulation of many large manufacturing establishments in the same district has a ten-