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PANAMA RAILROAD COMPANY.

Central American coast, in connection with the railroad.

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Besides the steamers set down above, there are numerous others engaged in the coasting trade or running short passenger trips that we might enumerate if we had space. The aggregate tonnage of these amount to 41,604.

Including this latter class, the aggregate tonnage of our commercial steam marine is 153,366 tons, of which 94,111 is owned in New York. The total cost of the vessels in New York hands alone is $16,231.088 13. The aggregate cost of the sea-going steamers of the United States is, as near as can be esti mated, $25,000,000.

RAILROADS IN CUBA.

The Cuba Messenger describes the progress of railroads in that Island as follows:-Our readers abroad may be able to form an idea of the progress of our Island by our merely mentioning the fact that the different railroad lines now finished and in the course of construction throughout the country, are 27 in number, and comprise, altogether, 1,315,522 kilometres, (about 818 English miles,) of which at least 500 miles are in operation. The whole amount thus far invested on these railroad lines, up to last year, was $17,027,414 66; and, according to the statistics published, they yielded in 1858 the sum of $3,386,840.

The principal line-the first ever constructed. (from this city to Guines, and now extending to La Union,)-was commenced in November, 1835; the line from Cardenas to Macagua was started in 1838, and the Jucaro railroad in 1839. All the others have been traced and commenced since 1840.

We append a list of the different lines in the manner they are generally designated in the corresponding sections :

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From Havana to Bejucal.

From Bejucal to Guines.
From Guines to La Union

Branch from San Felipe to Batabano.

Branch from Rincon to Guanajay

From Cardenas to Macagua.

From Cardenas to Jucaro.

From Matanzas to La Isabel. Branch from Navajas to Tramojos, and from Tramojos to Claudio.

From Regla to Guanabacoa (horse cars.)

Matanzas to Guanabana.

to Coliseo.

to Tosca.

to Delgado.

to Bemba.

From Caibarrien to Remedios.

Continuation from Remedios to S. Andres.
From Cienfuegos to Palmira.
From Palmira to Las Cruces.
From Las Cruces to Ranchuelo.
From Ranchuelo to Villa Clara.
From Villa Clara to Sagua.

From Carahatas to Quemados de los Guines.
From Trinidad to Sancti Spiritus.
From Macagua to Trinidad.

From Mallorquin to Las Pozas.
From Las Pozas to Macagua,

Sagua la Grande (along the river bank.)
Havana (Regla) to Matanzas. (Finished to Guana-
bacoa, double track, and thence Jaruco, single do.)
From Guines to Matanzas. Branch to Madruga.
Havana City Railroad, (surrounds the old city and
goes to Carmelo, at the outlet of the Almendares
river, 3 miles west of the city.)

From Guanabacoa to Cojemar.

Western Railroad. From Havana to Pinar del Rio.
Branch from Palacios to the San Diego Baths.
From Havana to Marianao.

From Pinar del Rio to Coloma.
Sancti Spiritus to Port Las Tunas.
From Nuevitas to Puerto Principe.

From Cobre (copper mines) to Punta de Sal (at St.
Jago.)

Guantanamo Railroad.

From St Jago to Sto. Cristo. Branch from Sto. Cris-
to to Maroto. Branch from Marota to Sabanilla.
From San Miguel to Baga (Puerto Principe.)

The Caney Branch, belonging to the line from St.
Jago to Sabanilla.

There are besides two or three other lines in view, but nothing decided yet about them.

With the assistance of a good chart of the Island, it will easily be seen at a first glance, that when all these lines are finished and in operation, the principal and most important cities and districts of the Island will form a sort of grand central trunk, extending its branches to both coasts.

We are most happy that we are able to state that the work or the prin

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cipal lines not yet finished is progressing rapidly, and that a system of sclidity and durability in the manner of constructing has been recently adopted, which, unfortunately, was overlooked to a great extent in the earlier part of railroad building in this Island. Some arrangements have been entered into recently, between the Havana and the Regla and Matanzas Railroad Companies, that will tend to avoid great expenditures in a double line running almost parallel to each other in a portion or section between this and Matanzas, and from what we have been able to glean in different directions, we are fully persuaded that the future constructions of railroad lines in this rich and flourishing Island will be conducted in the manner best calculated to promote both public and private convenience.

RAILWAY FROM BANGOR TO NEW ORLEANS.

There was completed in January the last two links in the great chain of railways from Maine to Louisiana-the first, the last twenty five miles on the Mississippi Central. and the second, of sixty-one miles between Lynchburg and Charlotteville, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, popularly known as the Lynchburg Extension. This route, as will be seen by the following table of distances, is within a fraction of 2,000 miles in length, from Bangor to New Orleans, of a continuous rail track, with the exception of four short ferries, viz., the Hudson River, the Susquehanna, the Potomac, and the James River at Lynchburg, the last two of which will soon be supplied with bridges :-

From New Orleans to Canton, Miss., by the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great
Northern Railway..

Canton to Grand Junction, Miss., by the Mississippi Central Railway
Grand Junction to Stephenson, Ala., by the Memphis and Charleston Railway.
Stephenson to Chattanooga, Tenn., by the Nashville and Chattanooga Railway
Chattanooga to Cleveland, Tenn., by the Cleveland and Chattanooga Railway.
Cleveland to Knoxville, Tenn., by the East Tennessee and Georgia Railway..
Knoxville to Bristol, Tenn., by the East Tennessee and Virginia Railway..
Bristol to Lynchburg, Va., by the Virginia and Tennessee Railway..
Lynchburg to Alexandria, by the Orange and Alexandria Railway.
Alexandria to Washington, D. C., by the Washington and Alexandria Railway
Washington to Baltimore, Md., by the Baltimore and Ohio Railway..
Baltimore to Philadelphia, by the Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Rail'd
Philadelphia to New York, by the Philadelphia and New York Railroad line.
New York to New Haven, Conn., by the New York and New Haven Railway
New Haven to Springfield..

206 165

219

38

29

83

130

204

169

6

39

98

87

74

62

98

Portland to Bangor, Me., by the Penobscot and Kennebec and Androscoggin and Kennebec Railways...

Boston to Portland, Me., by the Eastern and Portland, Saco, and Portsmouth
Railways.

45

107

187

Springfield to Worcester, by the Western Railway.
Worcester to Boston, by the Boston and Worcester Railway.

Total.....

1,996

This vast chain of railways is composed of eighteen independent roads, costing in the aggregate, for 2,394 miles of road, $92,784,084, or nearly one-tenth of the whole railway system of the United States, of which 1,996 miles are used in this continuous line. The roads from Washington City to New Orleans, embracing a distance of 1,249 miles, have had the contract for the great

through mail to New Orleans, once a day, since the 1st July, 1858. Now that these two links are completed, we hope soon to see the Department, if it is ever again in a position to pay contractors, to carry out the original plan of two daily mails, in 75 hours, between Washington City and New Orleans, which is the schedule time proposed by the different companies when the contract was awarded.

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COTTON AND RAILROADS.

The transportation of cotton is an important element of business for the railroads, of which the freight receipts are considerable. The proportion and the profits of the seventeen leading Southern roads were as follows:

Net Profit receipts. p. ct. $49,586 $37,850 14.20

Gross Freight

receipts.

784,023

Southern..

Alabama and Tennessee

Cost. $265,000 476,574 417,093 9.40 4,437,990 249,372 152,355 120,984 6.90 155,628 106,255

1,738,600

78,907 6.23

1,262,781

Montgomery and West Point.
Mobile and Ohio........
Nashville and Chattanooga
East Tennessee and Georgia.
Memphis and Charleston..
Mississippi and Tennessee.
Tennessee and Alabama
Raleigh and Gaston...........
Wilmington & Manchester..

Charleston and South Carolina..

South Carolina.....

Atlanta and West Point..

Georgia Central..

1,330,812

446,153 179,829 143,830 10.10

1,419,672

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Total.....

9,543,405 5,526,157 4,346,484 16.24 40,909,411

ABOLITION OF CANAL TOLLS IN CANADA.

The project for abolishing tolls on merchant vessels passing through the Provincial canals has passed the Canadian Legislature, and is now a law. Henceforth the produce of the Western States and of Upper Canada, taking the St. Lawrence route to the ocean, will have the advantage of free transit through a long line of artificial navigation. The government have sacrificed a hundred and fifty thousand dollars of revenue; or, rather, that amount is made up by general tax from other sources. Last year the number of vessels passing through the canals of Canada was 26,466, with a tonnage of 2,455,021. Of these, 22,800 were Canadian, with a tonnage of 1,828,383. Deduct 300,000 tons for the traffic on the local canals, from which the tolls are not removed, and there is still a balance of Canadian over American tonnage of 926,638. The predominance of benefit to Canadian commerce from abolition of the tolls will not be, howeyer, in anything like so large a proportion; for, small as may be the difference produced in favor of the St. Lawrence route by remission of these dues, it will still attract a large diversion of trade from the States, unless counteracted by a corresponding diminution of charges upon American routes.

JOURNAL OF MINING, MANUFACTURES, AND ART.

IRON PRODUCTION FOR 1859 IN EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA.

The following statements, made up by the Secretary of the Board of Trade, will show the extent of the iron production of Eastern Pennsylvania :—

The proprietors of works in the Schuylkill and Lehigh regions have, in most cases, been personally consulted for the results given below for 1859, and they are very near to absolute accuracy. For the Susquehanna regions, upper and lower, this accuracy was naturally unattainable. and the statistics are made up from the best judgment of such proprietors as have their headquarters in this city.

In the Schuylkill region nearest this city, there were nineteen steam anthracite blast furnaces, out of a total of twenty-eight existing there, in blast during 1859. This includes five furnaces at Lebanon, the location of which is somewhat nearer the Schuylkill than the Susquehanna, and of which the production is divided in seeking a market-part going to Pittsburg. There were also five charcoal furnaces in blast in the same district, producing about 1,000 tons of iron each. Several establishments, embracing two or more furnaces, had but one continuously in blast, so that nearly all the separate proprietary interests were more or less active.

The following was the production of this district in 1859Anthracite furnaces of the Schuylkill proper...

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at Lebanon....

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Total.......

.tons

48,500

25,000

5,500

79,000

For 1858 the exact production could not be obtained, but it was variously estimated at 38,000 to 45,000, and was probably about half that obtained in 1859. During the former year most of the furnaces going out of blast in 1857 remained idle, and did not resume until late in that year, or early in 1859.

In the Lehigh region the anthracite steam furnaces were unusually active in 1859, producing an aggregate of nearly 135,000 tons of pig iron. The stacks here built are the largest in use, several being more than 18 feet across the bosh, and producing proportionally more iron than the furnaces of the Schuylkill, which last do not exceed 14 feet, and are generally but twelve.

But three or four furnaces remained idle in the Lehigh region during 1859, and one new rolling mill was built for the business of 1860. Several of these furnaces produced the enormous quantity of 10,000 tons each during the yeara considerable excess over any previous production. The Thomas furnaces, and part of the Lehigh Crane Company's works, produced at the rate here named, and the works last mentioned made up a total of nearly 42,000 tons as its aggregate for the year.

From the Susquehanna iron-making region we have less definite information. Many furnaces were put in blast in 1859 which had been out for 1858, and the general testimony is that the aggregate of anthracite iron made was about the same as in 1857. As near as may be estimated for furnaces for which positive

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