1. On the declining pre-eminence of navigation see U.N. Economic Comm’n for Europe, Legal Aspects of Hydro-electric Development of Rivers and Lakes of Common Interest 21–37 (U.N. Doc. No. E/ECE/EP/98 Rev. 1) (1952).
2. It is interesting to note that the hydrofoil has been in use on European and Russian rivers for some time, and is being tested in the Western hemisphere as a solution to several types of transportation problem (such as commuter traffic). If generally adopted, it would restore to many rivers and river systems an intensity and range of use lost since modern road, rail, and airway development.
3. E.g., Gudeal, ruler of the Sumerian city of Lagash, had cedar, boxwood, marble, and other materials brought from Syria and Lebanon to build a palace. The timber was temporarily made into rafts on which the marble was floated down the Euphrates to Sumer. I Cambridge Ancient History 427–28 (1926).
4. Id. at 411.
5. Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism 32 (1963).