Page:Fifty years hence, or, What may be in 1943 - a prophecy supposed to be based on scientific deductions by an improved graphical method (IA fiftyyearshenceo00grim).pdf/66

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FIFTY YEARS HENCE.

tic transit in three days. Seasickness has been banished by medical science, and indeed the motion of the great electrically-driven argosies is so smooth that there would be little danger of sickness even without the remedies. Storms are allayed by the use of oil discharged from these vessels, which now ride the waves in defiance of their strength.

New wodels of vessels, taken from the marine division of the animal kingdom, have been introduced, and the rivalry between "deep-keel" and "centreboard" yessels, which in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century caused such absorbing discussion, is as nothing to the interest manifested by the advocates of the various models—the "pike," the "swordfish," and so on.

Across all great isthmuses there are canals and ship railways; and projects are under way for a transcontinental ship railway from New York to San Francisco.

The bottoms of all great rivers are paved smoothly and kept clean, so that navigation is never interfered with by bars; and these rivers are sources of health and strength rather than of danger to the cities through or by which they flow.