the debouchure of the Onion river into the lake, and is the capital of Chittenden county, and by far the most considerable commercial place of the State. It has, moreover, a fine agricultural back country, of which it is the mart and outlet. Burlington is distant from New York, by railway, about three hundred miles; from Boston two hundred and thirty-five; and from Montreal one hundred. By its possession of a central position, with the advantages of both land and water steam facilities, alike for travel and transportation to the grand emporia of Canada, New England, and New York, it is making rapid advances in wealth and population; and now, with railroad communications open on either side of the lake, can scarcely fail to improve and increase, in a ratio commensurate with that of the improvements in its vicinity. The only method, within our reach, of arriving at the aggregate amount of the lake commerce and traffic, is by taking the accounts of the canal office at Whitehall, which exhibit the amount and value of merchandise delivered at the lake, and the quantity and value of produce received from the lake; and then by estimating the coasting trade of the lake above Whitehall which does not reach the canal. By deducting from the aggregates of these, the Canadian trade of the districts of Vermont and Champlain, we arrive at the gross amount of the aggregate coasting trade of the whole lake, as comprising both the collection districts; but owing to this compulsory mode of procedure, no definite understanding of the proportion of commerce attaching to each, separately, of the two districts, can be reached.

The amount of assorted merchandise delivered into Lake Champlain in 1851 was 125,000 tons, at $1 75 per ton.

Average valuation as on Erie canal.
Amount of produce received from the lake.
Add for coasting above the canal...

Total commerce of the lake...

$21,875,000

3,515,895

1,000,000

26,390,895

The Canadian trade of Vermont district, for the years 1850 and 1851, was as follows:

The tonnage in the Canadian trade for the two years was as follows:

The aggregate shipping of Lake Champlain, both foreign and coastwise, is represented to have numbered 3,950 entrances, measuring 197,500 tons, and employing 11,850 men, with a corresponding number of clearances of the same measurement and crews.

The enrolled tonnage of this district in June, 1851, was 3,240 tons of steam, and 692 tons of sail.

ported to Canada in bond..

200,854

Value of property cleared at Whitehall for the South.... 3,515,895

No. 2.-DISTRICT OF CHAMPLAIN.

Port of entry, Plattsburgh; latitude 44° 42', longitude 73° 26'; population in 1830, 4,913; în 1840, 6,416; in 1850, 5,618.

*The Canadian trade of this district, principally, is in American vessels.

This district, which is situate on the western side of Lake Champlain, over against that last described, including the peninsula at the lower end between the waters of th it lake and Lake George, with the thriving town of Whitehall and the outlet by the Champlain canal, has a coast-line of equal extent, though less indented by bays, than the opposite district of Vermont.

It has two principal harbors-Whitehall, situate on both sides of Wood creek, at its entrance into the lake, in a beautiful and romantic site, with considerable water power, through which passes the very great majority of the whole export and import trade for Canada, and which is a singularly flourishing and improving village; and Plattsburgh, near to the upper extremity of the lake, at the head of a fine and spacious bay at the debouchure of the Saranac river, by which it, is connected with the mineral and lumbering regions of the interior, and with the recesses of the Adirondack chain. The village is well laid out, and contains the United States barracks, and several prosperous manufactories on the river. This district has little or no back country, the mountains rising abrupt and precipitous from the very verge of the lake in many places, and leaving a narrow strip of shore only, with a few villages scattered along the road to Plattsburgh, beyond which all is howling wilderness as far as to the valley of the Black river. Little dependence can, therefore, be placed on these regions for agricul tural produce, although their forest and mineral wealth compensates in some measure for the sterility and ruggedness of their soil.

Plattsburgh is the port of entry of this district, although Whitehall is the larger commercial depot. The only railroad which touches it is that of Ogdensburg, crossing Missisquoi bay and the narrows of the lake at Rouse's Point, and opening, at the town of Ogdensburg, a perfect inland intercommunication between the great lakes and the Atlantic ocean, at Boston. It is on the water communications, therefore, afforded by the lake, that the population of this district for the most part rely for the prosecution of their commercial enterprises and the transportation of their produce.

There are five daily steamers running during the season from Whitehall, touching at Burlington and Plattsburgh, for St. John, Canada East, and for St. Alban's Vermont.

The Canadian trade of this district during the years 1850 and 1851 was as follows:

The decrease of the year 1851, it will be observed, affects the number of entries and clearances only, the comparative tonnage being an increase on the preceding twelve months.

The tonnage enrolled in this district, June 30, 1851, was-steam, 917 tons; sail, 3,291 tons.

No. 3.-DISTRICT OF OSWEGATCHIE.

Port of entry, Ogdensburg; latitude 44° 41'; longitude 75° 32'; population in 1830, not defined; in 1840, 2,526; in 1850, 7,756.

This district extends along the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, from the point where the boundary line of New York and Canada strikes the great river-43°, 73° 20'-to Alexandria, nearly opposite to Gananoque, on the Canada side, and the thousand isles of the St. Lawrence. The extent of this coast line is about eighty miles, trending in a southwesterly direction; it includes the considerable commercial depot and improving town of Ogdensburg, beside the smaller ports of Massena, Louisville, Waddington, Morristown, and Hammond, and it has become the theatre of a very large and increasing trade with Canada, and coastwise, particularly since the opening of the Ogdensburg railroad.

This important line was opened from Ogdensburg to Rouse's Point, where it combines with the eastern and southeastern routes, in the autumn of 1850; and from this point passengers and freight crossing Lake Champlain have easy expedition, either to the New England States by railroad, or to New York, via Lake Champlain and the Hudson river, or by the new lines of railroad down the valley of the latter great thoroughfare. There being no line of transportation whatever through this district from the Canadas, except the above-mentioned road, and previous to the opening of that way none of any kind-the district itself being, moreover, a mere strip of ten miles' width between the river shore and the Adirondack highlands-the effect of this road has been very great on the general commercial prosperity, and particularly on that of Ogdensburg, which monopolizes the Canadian transportation business, for the other ports mentioned are merely river harbors, doing a small coasting business, and driving some small traffic with their neighbors across the water. In consequence of these advantages large quantities of freight find their way into this port from all parts of the upper lakes and of Canada, for transmission to various marts on the Atlantic seaboard; and large amounts of merchandise, both foreign and domestic, are thence distributed through the different lake ports, both of Canada and the United States, from New York and Boston.

The following statistics will show the comparative coasting trade of Ogdensburg in some of the principal articles during the past five years, the results for 1849 being made up only to the 1st of October of that year.