We have, according to these figures, a sea coast of over 33,000 miles, and an actual line of navigation, of nearly one hundred thousand miles-greater, in point of fact, than that of Europe and Asia together-as the subjoined recapitulation will show:

This alone refers to coasts and streams, navigable for vessels; and when we reflect, that hundreds of inland rivers are to be appended to the estimate, not included, because not classed with the commercial waters of the country, we find that our shore line, if any thing, extends beyond 100,000 miles, instead of falling short of the calculation. We have, too, beside the walls of water thus encircling us, a frontier dividing us from the British possessions, of 3,303 miles, extending from the mouth of the St. Croix to the Pacific ocean; and a frontier separating us from Mexico, of 1,456 miles, commencing at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and terminating also at the Pacific ocean. Our Lakes measure in length 1,573 miles, and in width 316 miles, and sustain upon their bosoms as many crafts as are floated by many nations in their intercourse with the whole world. The following are the measurements of each:

* Not including the Bay of Georgian, which is 120 miles long, and 45 miles wide.

The aggregate value of the commerce of the Lakes has been computed at $125000,000 per annum, and by competent authorities, at as high as $130,000,000. The latest returns show an average value, on

The returns from Lake Erie and Michigan, are greatly deficient; whereas, these, if full, with the returns of the Oswegatchie district, would increase the amount to that stated-$130,000,000. It will be remarked, however, that a portion of the commerce creating this sum, is the imports of one place enumerated in the estimate, as exported from another, which, in the calculation of net value, would materially reduce the amount. But it cannot be doubted, that the net amount approaches nearly, if not altogether, $100,000,000.

The tonnage of merchandise thus exported and imported, is set down at 3,861, 088 tons; the tonnage capacity of vessels employed in its transportation, 106,836 tons. From more recent returns, however, we are led to suppose the vessel tonnage now to be nearly 120,000 tons, and the merchandise tonnage 4,500,000.

The passenger trade, as an item of the commerce of the Lakes, is computed to be worth $1,500,000.

Add the net value of merchandise, $100,000,000.

And we have the grand aggregate of $101,500,000, as the full value of the trade on these internal waters, annually.

The steam tonnage of the western waters, is estimated at 300,000 tons; that of flat-bottoms, and other boats, at 600,000 tons-making altogether 900,000 tons. The amount of merchandise transported, is set down in net value at $200,000,000, or the gross at $296,000,000. This great disparity is accounted for, (as on the Lakes,) from the fact of one cargo of goods being twice entered-once as an export, and again, as an import-when the same should be confined to a single entry. The passenger trade is computed at $6,000,000, which increases the sum to $206,000,000.

Accordingly, our lake and river trade, per annum, amounts to $307,500,000; or nearly equal to our gross trade, in imports and exports, with the whole habitable world. The official statement of the commerce and navigation of the United States, for 1848 and 1849, furnishes us with the following facts, in illustration of this position:

Value of domestic exports for the fiscal year ending

June 30, 1848

Value of foreign exports for do.

Value of foreign imports

Total exports and imports .

$132,904,121

21,128,010-$154,032,131

154,998,928- 154,998,928

309,031,059

307,500,000

$1,531,059

If these official returns and calculations be correct-and we are assured they are the balance in favour of our foreign trade is a mere trifle. The increase, too, on our internal waters, is nearly 5 per cent. greater than that of our ocean trade, in which case, in a very few years, the latter will become, (though the principal channel of our revenues,) subsidiary to this mightier element of our internal prosperity.

PLANK ROADS.

A letter from Professor Gillespie (author of the "Manual of road-making”) which was read at a recent public meeting in Schenectady, contains much valuable information on this important subject.

"To inland towns roads are substitutes for navigable rivers. The more widely they radiate in every direction, and the better their condition, the greater will be the consequent prosperity. Their comparative value is determined by the different weights which a horse can draw upon them at any uniform speed, or by the different speeds at which he can draw the same load. Of all modes of improving their surface, plank roads are the most effectual at the smallest cost. If we take the load drawn on a new gravel road as our standard of comparison, experiments show that on a good broken stone, or Macadam road, a horse can draw four times as much, and on a smooth plank road eight times as much, or twice as much as on a good Macadam road.

Plank roads, therefore, enable a horse to do more than any other arrangement except railroads. But invaluable as the latter are to the hurrying traveller, the ordinary roads on which every farmer can drive his own team, when not needed for the farm labours, are incomparably more useful to the community at large-and of all such, plank roads are the perfection. They 2rce Farmer's Railroads.

MODE OF CONSTRUCTION.-The best mode of constructing them is briefly this: Lay out the intended line with great care to avoid steep inclinations, never ascending more than one foot in going thirty or forty, and winding many feet around rather than go up one. Grade the road bed wide enough for two wagon tracks, but plank only one, and that on the right hand side coming towards a city, for teams generally come in heavy and go out light, and this arrangement makes the heavy ones keep the track, and the light ones do all the turning out. Lay down flatwise two stringers, twelve by three, four feet apart, centre to centre. Imbed them well in the earth; across them, at right angles, lay three inch hemlock plank, eight feet long. The lengthwise and skewing methods of laying them are now abandoned. Pack the earth well up to them; slope the earth track toward the ditches (which should be wide and deep,) and your plank road is made.

Many minor points must, however, be attended to, to make your road as perfect as possible. The inner stringers should be higher than the outer ones, so as to carry the water off freely. They should be in two pieces, each 6 by 3, so as to break joints. The ends of the planks should not be laid to a line, but project a few inches, on each side alternately, so as to make it easy for wheels to get on the track, and to avoid forming a rut alongside. They need not be fastened down, but I would recommend spiking down, say, every fifth or tenth plank, the rest being well driven home against these. The stringers are now made heavier than formerly and the plank lighter. When hemlock planks get worn down two inches, the knots project so as to make the road too rough, and to require renewal. Allow one inch more to hold them in, and we have three inches thickness. Hemlock is generally used, as cheapest, but pine or oak would be better.

A single track will be sufficient for almost any amount of travel. The turnings out upon the earth road by the side of it are at such varied points, that its surface, if made properly crowning, will always remain in good condition. 160,000 teams passed over a Syracuse road in two years, averaging more than 200 a day; and for three days in succession 700 a day passed over it; and all this was on a single track.

COST.-The cost of the road will of course vary with the price of lumber. On the plan recommended it will require 127,000 feet of plank, and 32,000

feet of stringers per mile; in all say 160,000 feet board measure. Other items of cost are the levelling the road bed and laying the plank, which costs from 50 cents to $1 per rod. The excavations and embankments necessary to give the road proper grades, and the bridges and sluices cannot be estimated without the data of a survey. Omitting these, as also gate-houses, we will have the following rough estimate of cost per mile:

Or say $2,000 per mile, with lumber at $9, and omitting extra excavations and embankments, and gate houses. The difference of a dollar per M. in the price of lumber, makes a difference of $160 per mile.

DURATION. AS for durability, seven years for hemlock would be a safe estimate, though our experience is as yet very limited. One set of stringers will out-last two or three coverings of plank. But, to be profitable, the planks must have so much travel as to wear them out before they rot out. The wear and tear of the first year equals that of the following six, as a tough elastic coating of woody fibres, &c., is soon formed, and protects the plank from wear. And the sooner they wear out, the better; for the sooner will their cost be thus repaid. On one road, the passage of 160,000 teams wore the plank down but one inch.

PROFITS. Before hemlock planks have been worn out, they will earn at the rate of tolls established by the general plank road law from $2,500 to $3,000 per mile above repairs and expenses, or double their original cost, which they will thus reimburse, and leave as much more for dividends, which will of course be more or less large, according as the wearing out, and concomitant earning is done in a shorter or longer time. On the Syracuse and Central Square Plank road, the tolls on 8 miles, for two years, ending last July, were $12,900; the expenses of salaries and repairs were $1,500, leaving $11,400. The planks were half worn out (one inch) so that their net profits before renewal would be $22,800, for the eight miles, or $2,850 per mile.

ADVANTAGES.-In improvements of this character it is difficult to say who gains the most-whether it is the stockholder, the farmer, the city merchant, or the consumer of the produce brought in. The farmer can bring his potatoes, apples, grain, pork, wood, &c., to market at seasons when he would otherwise be imprisoned at home by the state of the road, and could not there work to advantage. He could also carry twice as heavy a load as ever before, and therefore at half the former cost. He could therefore sell cheaper and yet nake larger profits. The consumer would consequently get the articles that he uses at lower prices. Wood, for example, would be greatly lowered in cost by being brought from distant forests now inaccessible to us. So with other articles. Every inhabitant would therefore be benefited, for every one must be warmed and fed. The merchant will find his old country-customers and many new ones coming at all times, and will share their larger profits. The stockholder, beside his gains as a member of one of these three classes, of producer, merchant or consumer, will in addition receive his dividends from tolls. It is one of those rare business transactions by which all the parties gain."

FACTORY STATISTICS.

We give below an account of the first regular factory establishment in the United States; and, for the purpose of showing what has been effected in fifty years, we add a recent statement of a single manufacturing town-Lowell, in Massachusetts.

The whole capital invested in manufactures in the United States, in 1840, was $267,726,579. The number of persons employed 349,506, and the value of cotton and woollen goods manufactured was about $70,000,000.

BYFIELD FACTORY,

Was erected in 1793 at the falls of Parker river in Newbury, Byfield Parish, on the site of the ancient Spencer Mill lot, which was conveyed by Spencer to Henry Sewall, who came from England, and it descended by inheritance to his posterity. Mr. Samuel Slater had perhaps a small spinning establishment previous at Pawtucket, but the one at Byfield was the first regular factory. The machinery was made at Newburyport, by Messrs. Strandring, Armstrong and Guppy. The company of stockholders consisted of Wm. Bartlet, Esq., principal, Capt. William Johnson, Capt. Nicholas Johnson, Capt. Michael Hodge, Capt. Joseph Stanwood, Mark Fitz, a Mr. Currier of Amesbury, Chief Justice Parsons, (then a lawyer in Newburyport,) Jonathan Greenleaf, Esq., James Prince, Esq., Abraham Wheelwright, Philip Coombs, and others, whose names are not now known to the writer.

It will be seen, then, that the history of this establishment is the commencement of all factory history in the United States. Of the individuals who were concerned in erecting the building, only two remain, Mr. Samuel Kimball of Bradford, and Dea. Charles Foster of Andover. Mr. David Poor, deceased, was master carpenter. The English operatives who started the establishment were Arthur Scofield, John Scofield, James Scofield, John Lee, Mr. Aspen wall, Abraham Taylor, John Taylor, John Shaw, James Hall, principally from the towns of Oldham and Saddleworth, in England.

At first the establishment was entirely woollen, but owing to the circumstance that the workmen manufactured the wool promiscuously, without assorting, into fine or coarse fabric as best suited their fancy or convenience, it became unprofitable, and the stockholders gradually sold to one another till it all went into Mr. Bartlett's hands. He again sold it to Mr. John Lee, a native of Saddleworth, in Yorkshire, who carried on the manufacture of broadcloth and flannel till about the year 1806. Then the circumstance of Arkwright's invention gave a new impulse to the manufacturing business; and Mr. Lee went to England after cotton machinery. The exportation of this was forbidden by English law. The machinery was therefore packed in large casks, and labelled "hardware." Mr. Lee came in another vessel to prevent trouble by detection. This machinery was first set up in the large story over the grist mill, by two English machinists, viz.: John Hancock and . James Mallelow, and over the door was placed a huge placard, with the inscription, "No admittance without leave."

This machinery consisted of drawing frames, spinning frames technically called mules' throttles. This machinery was afterwards transferred to the third story of the factory building, where it was successfully worked for a number of years. The product consisted chiefly of cotton yarn wicking, coarse gingham and sheeting. The cotton cloth was all woven at the factory, by females. The price of sheeting at this time, covered with cotton burrs, was fifty cents per yard, and gingham perhaps seventy cents. About this time, (perhaps the year 1809,) an event occurred which had like to have anticipated an invention in England. Dr. Josiah Richards, now of Claremont, N .H., then