Here is a case of the sort--paragraph from the 'Cincinnati Commercial'-- 'The towboat "Jos.

B.Williams" is on her way to New Orleans with a tow of thirty-two barges, containing six hundred thousand bushels (seventy-six pounds to the bushel) of coal exclusive of her own fuel, being the largest tow ever taken to New Orleans or anywhere else in the world.

Her freight bill, at 3 cents a bushel, amounts to $18,000.

It would take eighteen hundred cars, of three hundred and thirty-three bushels to the car, to transport this amount of coal.

At $10 per ton, or $100 per car, which would be a fair price for the distance by rail, the freight bill would amount to $180,000, or $162,000 more by rail than by river.