of all this, asks Mr. Barton, if the Memphis Convention considered the Mississippi River an inland sea, what may our great chain of lakes be called? Amongst the articles classed sundries, in Mr. Barton's tables for 1845, Missouri, 47,170 pounds, is lard oil, and Kentucky, 610,415 pounds, is hemp, brought this way through the new canal, opened from Cincinnati to Toledo, on Lake Erie; it is already an item of some importance. As the New York Canal Board have made some considerable reductions in tolls, on many articles of western products, we may look for a corresponding increase of them to pass over the lakes. That such will be the result of the reduction of tolls, will be seen by the following extract of a letter, dated CINCINNATI, May 2d, 1846. "Yesterday, Messrs. James Wilson & Co., agents for Griffith's Western Line, received a quantity of flour from St. Louis, to be forwarded to New York, via Miami Canal and the Lakes. This shipment will be followed by others for the same destination. This is a new feature in our canal business, as well as a new element of prosperity. The charges on this flour will be nearly as follows :— Freight from St. Louis to Cincinnati, per barrel,.. Freight thence to New York,. Total charges, per barrel,.......... $0.20 $1.53 Cheap enough, in all conscience, for carrying 1,775 miles. The charges by the southern route would be about $1 40 per barrel, but the danger of souring, the damage to packages in the trans-shipment at New Orleans, &c., will be greater than the difference in freight." In the year 1845, there were the following number and description of vessels owned and running on the lakes above Niagara Falls, as near as can be ascertained by the most careful inquiry: Mr. Barton gives the following as the number of boats on Lake Ontario, during the year 1845, viz.: 7 steamboats which confined their trade to that lake; 8 large propellers, and about 100 brigs and schooners, not merely engaged on that lake, but the largest sized and greater number extend their operations to the extreme end of Lake Michigan, via the Welland Canal, and carry up and bring back an immense amount of business in merchandise, salt, passengers, agricultural productions, &c. The tonnage owned and built on Lake Ontario, is estimated at 18,000 tons, and the cost of construction at $1,500,000. In the fall of 1845, after the close of navigation, there were put in construction around these Upper Lakes, 7 steamboats, 9 propellers, 14 brigs and schooners, all of the largest class. Large additions were made during the winter of 1845, to the tonnage on Lake Ontario. The extremely boisterous weather last fall was very destructive to lives and vessels, amounting to, as nearly as a careful account can make it, sixty lives lost, thirty-six vessels driven ashore, twenty of which became total wrecks, four foundered at sea, with entire loss of crews and cargoes, and producing a loss in the aggregate of property over two hundred thousand dollars. And it has suffered in losses, within the last five years, more than four hundred lives, and destruction and damage to steamboats, vessels, and cargoes, more than one million of dollars. The increase of the lake marine during 1845, on Lake Erie and the Upper Lakes, consisted of the following vessels :— Mr. Barton gives the following (as part) of the addition on Lake On The vast emigration passing through the extreme length of these lakes to purchase and settle the public lands, will annually require an increase in size and number of vessels, to carry off the increasing productions of that fertile section of country, and to supply their wants from the seaboard. The actual number of steamboats now on the lakes, compared with 1841, is not much, if any, increased; but those which have gone off, have been supplied by others of double and quadruple in capacity. At that day, there as but one boat over 700 tons, and one other above 600 tons burthen. The new ones range from 600 to 1,200 tons. At that time the business from Buffalo to Chicago could be done by six or eight of the then largest size boats; now it requires fifteen, of more than double capacity, to do, aided by about twenty steam propellers of more than 300 tons each, and an almost endless number of large brigs and schooners, many of which can carry 10,000 to 15,000 bushels of wheat. Since 1841, the price of fare and freight by steamboats has fallen to, cabin passage and found, $12; steerage, $6; light goods 35, and heavy to 20 cents per 100 pounds, except late in the fall months, when an advance is usually made in freight alone. In 1835 the following description of property came from the State of Ohio, being then the only exporting State on these lakes, and passed through Buffalo, via the Erie Canal, to tide-water : Barrels flour. Bushels wheat. Lbs. staves. Bbls. provisions. Bbls. ashes. Lbs. wool. 86,233 98,071 2,565,272 6,562 4,410 149,911 In 1845 the exports of Ohio, and other States around these lakes, sent off by the same channel, 717,466 1,354,990 88,296,431 68,000 34,602 2,957,761 The total amount of flour and wheat exported from the same States in 1845, and which passed over the lakes, exceeded 1,500,000 barrels of flour. Within ten years, many thriving cities and towns besides Chicago, have sprung into existence. Amongst the most prominent may be mentioned Navarino, Sheboygan, Milwaukie, Racine, Southport, and Little Fort, containing an active and busy population, from 1,000 to over 8,000 each, and annually increasing; while the rich and valuable lands in the rear, all owned by the government, are being rapidly sold, and brought under culti vation by an industrious, enterprising, and worthy class of settlers. On the eastern side, the St. Josephs and Grand River towns, and others, are pushing forward with great zeal, and adding largely to their numbers yearly. The large rivers traversing the State of Michigan, and which discharge themselves into that lake, are already navigated by steamboats fitted for that navigation, and so are Fox River and Winnebago Lake, beyond Green Bay. The earnings from the business done on Lake Michigan, in 1833, by steamboats, amounted to $4,355; in 1834, it increased to $6,272; in 1841, the large amount of $226,352 was done. In undertaking to arrive at the aggregate value of the commerce on these great lakes, Mr. Barton adopts the following method : "The amount, as shown by the tables appended hereto, and what is done from the extensive mills at Black Rock, which joins Buffalo, in 1845, by an estimate made by the Canal Board of this State, from a system long adopted, and from experience found to give very near the true amount, is $28,000,000; add the commerce to and from this city, which never reaches the canal, and it will increase the sum $5,000,000 more; which amount is further to be increased by all the business delivered on and taken from the lakes by the various other canals and railroads named in this communication; and the very large amount of what may be termed intermediate commerce between different ports on the lakes, which I put, with great confidence, at an equal amount with that done through Buffalo. And to all this must be added the amount done on Lake Ontario, which I place at $15,000,000, and I arrive, without the fear of being refuted, at an amount of $81,000,000, without including one dollar of the immense sums of money carried over these lakes." The number of passengers that annually cross these lakes forms another important branch of this business. Last year, during the season of navigation, there were three daily lines of large steamboats leaving Buffalo for Toledo, Detroit, and the western shore of Lake Michigan, as far as Chicago, besides other shorter lines. From a careful count and estimate of the names of passengers on the different boats' way-bills, deposited in the office of the steamboat association, of which Mr. Barton was the agent, made by a gentleman of acknowledged correctness as an accountant, it appears that during the last season, The number of passengers which left Buffalo, was.... 93,367 Taken on board at way-ports before the boats reached the end of their route,. 5,369 98,736 About 200,000 persons, independent of the crews of the steamboats and vessels, crossed these Upper Lakes in 1845. And to this great number may be added 50,000 more, passing and repassing on Lake Ontario in various ways, and including those taken to and from the Upper Lakes in the propellers and vessels which pass via the Welland Canal; making the total aggregate of all the passengers passing on all the lakes in 1845, about one-fourth of a million. In addition to the boats and lines run last season, there is this season one boat running from Buffalo to Green Bay, and two from Cleveland and Detroit to the Sault de St. Marie, and one from Mackinac to the Sault for the accommodation of the business just commencing with the copper regions around Lake Superior. Surely, observes Mr. Barton, this vast amount of life exposed, capital invested in steam and sail vessels, and value of property transported therein, owned by the citizens of so many States bordering on the lakes, and which is fast approaching one hundred millions annually, nearly equalling the whole foreign export trade of the United States, cannot but present a strong claim on the justice of Congress for an equitable expenditure of the public revenue for its protection and safety. Mr. Barton briefly discusses the constitutionality of the systein of internal improvements, and very justly asks the aid of government. "The navigation of these great lakes is of the highest importance to this Union, whether regarded in a commercial or national point of view. “Commercially, as binding together by the strong ligaments of mutual interest and benefits, a very large number of the States, who are thereby enabled to exchange their varied commodities of trade, one with the other, and with all; while each revolving year adds a new and stronger link to the bright chain of friendship and interests, which indissolubly connect them together. Nationally, as furnishing the government with the cheapest, most prompt and efficient means of defence to an extended frontier. Only give the hardy navigators of these Northern and Western Lakes channels of communication deep enough to swim their ships in, and harbors to protect them from tempests and storms, and government will always have at hand, on this frontier, the ready means to repel insult and aggression, come when, and from where it may." We subjoin a tabular statement of the amount of revenue collected for the two fiscal years, running from the 1st of July, 1843, to the 30th of June, 1845, at all the ports of entry on the Northern Lakes, and the amount collected each year at cach port: The Hon. Mr. Wentworth, member of Congress, from Illinois, in a speech on the appropriation bills, makes the following statements, with which we close the present article on lake commerce: The lake commerce, said Mr. W., was more extensive than would be supposed from the very small number of lake representatives on this floor. In 1845 there were 17 vessels, of 4,598 tons, built on Lake Ontario; and between Buffalo and Chicago, 48 vessels, of 10,207 tons. In all the lakes, save Champlain, 65 vessels, of 15,000 tons, costing $850,000. In the last five years, were built above Niagara Falls, 180 vessels, costing $2,500,000. Of these, 31 were steamboats, and 4 propeliers. In the whole lake trade, Mr. W. estimated 60 steamboats, 20 propellers, 50 brigs, 270 schooners-making 400 vessels, of 80,000 tons; costing $4,000,000. There are now building on the stocks between Chicago and Buffalo, 10 steamboats, 12 propellers, and 12 sail vessels-34 in all. There are 6,000 active seamen on these lakes, and their commerce, the past season, has been all of $125,000,000. Art. III.-THE NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD. FIVE millions of dollars having been already expended in the construction of the New York and Erie Railroad, the state lien of three millions of dollars having been removed, the necessary surveys and locations made and completed, and three millions additionally subscribed by the citizens of New York, to further the efforts of the company to advance the work, are a sure guarantee that this great enterprise, which has hitherto sustained so many drawbacks and discouragements, during a period of nearly a quarter of a century, is about to be successfully consummated. Destined, as this road is, to form a crowning feature among the many gigantic enterprises undertaken and successfully prosecuted to completion, by the indomitable energy of the citizens of the Empire State, it may interest the readers of the Merchants' Magazine to recur to the early history of this work, its progress, present prospects, and ultimate effects upon the trade and commerce of the Atlantic seaboard, and the great and growing West, where scarcely less interest is manifested for its completion than by the citizens of New York. |