The total number of vessels owned and registered at Baltimore on the 30th of June, 1849, embraced an aggregate tonnage of 134,025,35 tons, of which 53,624,75 tons were engaged as licensed coasters, and 11,464,28 tons employed in steam navigation. During the same year there were built at Baltimore 63 vessels, viz. :-9 ships and barks, 8 brigs, 41 schooners and 5 steamers, with an aggregate tonnage of 12,199,66 tons.-U. S. Journal. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 1.-AFRICAN TRADE AND PRODUCTIONS. The value of the commerce of Africa to the United States is steadily and rapidly advancing, and needs but encouragement from our government to make it, in a few years, as valuable to our country as that of Great Britain was twenty years ago. During the last ten or fifteen years great discoveries have been made in and about Africa, and many new and important facts brought to light. In addition to the numerous eligible points on the coast, occupied by slave traders, the French have had for some time a settlement on the Senegal, and have recently taken possession of the Gaboon region; the Danes are on the Rio Volta; the Dutch on the gold coast; the Portuguese at Loango; the Americans at Liberia -now formed into an independent Republic, with laws modeled after our own; --and the English at Sierra Leone, in the Gambia, and on the gold coast. From the results of these colonies and the testimony of travellers, such as Park, Lander, Laird, Clapperton, Burckhart, McQueen, Duncan, and others, we are afforded evidence that nature has scattered her bounties with the most lavish hand; and that what is required to make them available to the noblest purposes, is a legitimate commerce, sustained by our rulers and directed by honorable men. Among the productions of the soil may be named: Grain.-Rice, Indian corn, Guinea corn, millett, wheat, domah, &c. Fruits.-Oranges, lemons, limes, guavas, pines, citrons, papaws, plantains, bananas, dates, tamarinds, Mango plum, &c. Roots.-Manioc, igname, batalee, yams, cassada, arrowroot, ginger, sweet potato, beans, peas, &c. &c. Timber-Teak, ebony, lignumvitæ, rosewood, oak, mahogany, and forty or fifty other species of wood, suitable for all purposes. Nuts.-Palm nut, shea or butter nut, cocoa nut, cola nut, croton nut, castor oil nut, netta nut, pea nut, &c. Dyes.-Carmine, yellow various shades, blue, orange various shades, red, crimson, brown, &c. Dyewoods.-Camwood, barwood, &c. Gums.-Copal, Senegal, mastic, sudan, &c. Drugs.-Aloes, cassia, senna, frankincense, copaiva, &c. Minerals.-Gold, iron, copper, emery, sal amoniac, nitre, &c. Miscellaneous-Sugar cane, coffee, cocoa, cotton, indigo, tobacco, India rubber, beeswax, ostrich feathers, hides, skins, ivory, pepper of all varieties, spices, hemp, honey, &c. &c. In the animal kingdom I find that, in addition to the wild beasts which infest its forests and occupy its swamps, and whose skins, teeth and horns are valuable as articles of commerce, immense herds of cattle, incalculable in number, range its plains. Hides, therefore, to almost any amount, may be obtained. Sheep and goat skins, of a very large kind, are equally numerous and very valuable. Fish of all kinds visit the shores and rivers in innumerable shoals, and are easily taken in large quantities during the proper season. The mineral kingdom has not been explored, but enough is known to show that the precious metals abound, particularly gold. This is found throughout the known regions of Africa, in beds of rivers and in mines. Dupuis and Bowditch speak of the "solid lumps of rock gold" which ornament the persons of the attendants in the Court of the King of Ashantee, at Coomassie. Mrs. Bowditch says, the great men will frequently, on state occasions, so load their wrists with these lumps that they are obliged to support them on the head of a boy. The iron ore found near Sierra Leone is particularly rich, yielding seventynine per cent., and is said to be well adapted to making steel. Copper is so abundant in Mayomba that they gather from the surface of the ground enough for their purposes. A few words on the productiveness of the soil. It has been proved that two crops of corn, sweet potatoes and several other vegetables can be and are raised in a year. They yield a larger crop than the best soils in America. One acre of rich land, well tilled, says Governor Ashmun, will produce three hundred dollars worth of indigo. Half an acre may be made to grow half a ton of arrowroot. Four acres laid out in coffee plants, will, after the third year, produce a clear income of two or three hundred dollars. Half an acre of cotton trees, yielding cotton of an equal, if not superior, length and strength of staple and fineness and color than fair" Orleans," will clothe a whole family, and one acre of canes will make the same number independent of all the world for sugar. The dyes in particular, are found to resist both acids and light, properties which no other dyes that we know of, possess. In the year 1840, 39 British vessels arrived at Cape Coast. Since that time the trade has been gradually improving. The last year's report, which we have received, sets down the imports into Cape Coast as amounting to £423,170 sterling, and the exports as £325,008 sterling. The imports during the same period into Asia were £95,000 and the exports £115,000 sterling. The total export of British merchandize to Africa is at present estimated at £5,000,000 sterling per annum. The average import of palm oil alone into Liverpool, for some years past, has been at least 15,000 tons a year, valued at about £400,000 sterling, and giving employment to 25,000 or 30,000 tons of shipping. The imports into the republic of Liberia are estimated by an American (white) physician, who has spent six years there, at $120,000 per annum, and the exports as reaching very nearly the same amount. The commerce of our own country with Africa is daily becoming an important item. The principal seats of this trade are Salem, Mass., and Providence, R.I. New York occasionally sends, while our city has at the present time five sail of brigs and barques actively and profitably employed. One of our merchants stated, that he cleared $12,000 in one year on the single article of ground or pea nuts. Strange as it may appear, nearly all these nuts are transhipped to France, where they command a ready sale, are there converted into, and thence find their way over the world in the shape of olive oil-the skill of the French ehemists enabling them to simulate the real Lucca and Florence oil, so as to deceive the nicest judges. Indeed, the oil from pea nuts possesses a sweetness and delicacy not to be surpassed. While we greatly regret that there are no means of acquiring proper and correct information of the commerce of Africa, yet we presume the facts we have already given, and the recollection that there are at least-according to the best informed parties-160,000,000 of inhabitants in that continent, the whole of whom are not only willing, but anxious, to exchange the various products of their prolific soil for the dry goods, powder, rum, beads, pipes, tobacco, lead bars, iron bars, hardware, glassware, earthenware, brassware, cowries, soap, flints, tallow and sperm candles, wines, beef, pork, lard, flour, meal, hams, tongues, biscuit, crackers, perfumery, and the thousand other articles produced by the skill and industry of our citizens. So important and valuable has this rapidly increasing commerce become to Great Britain, that we cannot but notice the great efforts which have been made, and are making, by that power, to secure all the trade of Africa to her merchants. In addition to the aid given to various enterprising travellers, and the enormous expense borne by her in keeping up a large and efficient squadron on the coast, and in sustaining her colonies there, we behold her pouring forth immense sums of money on the celebrated "Niger expedition;" in sending Mr. Duncan to negociate a treaty with the powerful King of Dahomey, and in the ready acknowledgment of the independence of the republic of Liberia— Since writing the foregoing, information has been received by the steamer America, "that it is in contemplation by some Liverpool merchants-with every prospect of success-to form an African Company, with a capital of £100,000, in 2000 shares of £50 each, for the purpose of trade with Africa." entering immediately into a treaty of commerce and amity-and the kind attention shown President Roberts during his brief stay in that country. It therefore well becomes our government to awaken themselves to the importance of the African trade. Ours are emphatically a commercial people, and to enable them to enter into competition with the English traders, demands the earliest and most serious attention. WM. C. 2. COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1849. In our review for March last, Vol. VIII., p. 277-280, we analyzed and presented the Treasury Statement of American Commerce and Navigation for the year, ending 1st July, 1849, but want of space prevented us from completing the details. Since that time we have been so much occupied with other matters that it escaped our attention. We proceed, therefore, to supply the defects, and will follow up the statistics with those of the next report to be presented to Congress in December next, and coming down to July, 1850. 3. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS UNITED STATES. The Domestic Produce exported was embodied in our tables, Vol. VIII., p. 278, and we refer the reader to them. 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