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canal, since the Welland and St. Lawrence came into competition with it.

In the down-trade, flour and wheat have been reduced thirty-three per cent.; corn and oats, from four and a half mills to two mills; pork, bacon, lard, and lard oil, from four and a half mills to one and a half mill; beef, butter, cheese, tallow, beer, cider, vinegar, from four and a half to three mills. Almost every other article of down-freight has undergone like reductions. Likewise the discrimination in favor of pot and pearl ashes and window glass manufactured in New York State has been abandoned; the State retaining only a discriminating toll against salt and gypsum from other States or countries.

There can be no question but that the whole western country would have been annually taxed, both upon their exports and imports, a much larger amount than is now paid by them, in order to swell the revenue of the Erie canal, had it not been for the healthful competition of the Canadian works. As an example: the reduction in the tolls on railroad iron since 1845 amounts to $5 44 per ton of 2,000 lbs. The amount of this iron which reached Lake Erie in 1851 wasBy Erie canal to Buffalo...

By Welland canal to Lake Erie..

46,876,427

.156,784,320

203,660,747

equal to 101,830 tons of 2,000 lbs.; and the reduced toll on this one article would be $553,955 20. It has been estimated by the late Hon. Robert Rantoul, jr., M. C., that the Northwest will require 100,000 tons of railroad iron per annum for the next five years, upon which they will now pay more than half a million of dollars less, in tolls alone, than they would have paid before the enlarged Welland canal was opened. Again: over 220,000 tons of wheat and flour, and 150,000 tons of corn, from western States, were shipped eastward from Buffalo in 1851, the reduction on the tolls of which amounts to $512,830 from the rates of 1845; besides some 185,000 tons of wheat and flour, and 40,000 tons of corn, which passed down through the Welland, to the most of which the reduced tolls should be applied.

Thus the eastern States, in their imports of three articles from the West, as well as the western ones, in their import of one article from the East, have each obtained a reduction of transit dues amounting to over half a million of dollars, which is mainly to be ascribed to the construction of the ship-canals of Canada.

Again: the tolls on the Erie canal upon tobacco are four times greater if "going from tide-water" than if "going toward" it, by which policy it is hoped to draw this article from the lower Ohio, Missouri, &c., to the eastern States and the seaboard through this canal. This discrimination in direction has been abandoned in respect of other articles, and will follow with tobacco, because no similar distinctions are made on the Welland.

The auditor of the canal department, in his report on the tolls, trade, and tonnage for 1850, bears the following evidence to the influence of the Welland canal:

"The diversion of western trade from Buffalo to Oswego has also

considerably affected the revenue. While there has been 36,475 tons less of this trade entered the canal at Buffalo in 1850 than in 1849, the western tonnage coming in at Oswego has increased by 41,664 tons."

The State engineer of New York, in his report of February, 1851, urging the necessity of the enlargement of the Erie canal, says that its full capacity will be reached in 1852, and, after remarking that the cost of transport is one and a half cent per ton per mile, says, "There are lines of communication now built, and in progress of construction, which can take freight at a cheaper rate;" and, after alluding to the Ogdensburg railroad, he says, "But there is another, and I apprehend a still cheaper route, by water to Lake Champlain, soon to come into competition at the North, which will produce as cheap or cheaper rates to Boston than the above. The freight by that route afloat on Lake Champlain may find cheaper transport to New York than to Boston. It will not pass through the Erie canal, and will be diverted from Albany by cheaper routes." Lastly, he says, "Canada and Boston have not yet perfected all their works. All will soon have their whole machinery in motion. Their plans are not the product of blindness or folly-they are the results of good judgment and a just appreciation of the great boon sought and the best means of attainment."

The effect of the Canadian navigation on the imports of western States is ascertained by the 50,000 tons of iron (American property) imported last year via Quebec. The large amount of tonnage entering Quebec in ballast in quest of timber will bring in coal, iron, slate, salt, and other heavy articles at about half the rates now charged on these articles to New York. While, therefore, ocean freights inward are so much less than at New York, the abundance of timber enhances all other freights outward to more than double that from New York. The position of the two ports is reversed: it is the outward voyage which pays at Quebec, while at New York flour has been carried out for six pence sterling per barrel to Liverpool.

When the effect of the repeal of the navigation laws brings more vessels into Quebec than are required for timber, outward freights from the lakes may pour down the St. Lawrence, and the rates of freight come down to a standard which will make the whole cost of shipment from the lakes to Europe via the St. Lawrence as favorable as via New York.

THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS.

This group of islands occupies a prominent position, almost in the centre of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and directly in the track of vessels bound up the gulf for Quebec. Including the Bird and Brion islands, which evidently form part of the group, the whole length of the range is about fifty-six miles in an east-northeast direction.

Its

Amherst island, the most southern of the chain, is nearly oval, nearly six miles in length, and three and a half in extreme width. harbor is the best in the chain, with a narrow but straight entrance, over a soft ooze bar, for vessels drawing eleven to twelve feet water. This island is eighteen leagues northwest of Cape Breton; the same northward of Prince Edward island. It is thirty-six leagues from the

nearest point of Newfoundland, seventy-five leagues from the French settlements at St. Pierre and Miquelon, and one hundred and eighty leagues eastward of Quebec.

The central portions of the Magdalen islands rise into hills, varying from two hundred to five hundred and eighty feet above the sea; their tops are rounded. On the sides of these hills are found stratified deposites of sandstones and ochreous clays, with gypsum in the hollows and basins, and also occasionally in veins.

The water of many springs and rivulets is so salt as to be unfit for use; and although rock salt has not yet been found, yet it is believed to exist in these islands.

The gypsum forms an article of export. On one of the group it is found of exceeding fine quality, and very white, approaching to alabaster in purity.

The principal dependence of the inhabitants is upon the cod fishery, although they also prosecute the herring and seal fisheries to some

extent.

There are at present upon these islands about two thousand inhabitants, the majority of whom are French Acadians.

The fisheries around the Magdalen islands are very excellent, and afford a profitable return to the industry of those who prosecute them. If arrangements were entered into by which our citizens could have the right of setting up fishing stations on these islands, and of prosecuting the various prolific fisheries in the surrounding seas, it would be of very great advantage to them, and open a wide field for their energy and enterprise. They would also gain the early and late fisheries, from which they are now debarred, whose advantages have been already mentioned.

These islands were formerly attached to the government of Newfoundland, but at present they are under the jurisdiction of the Canadian government. The whole group was granted by the British government to Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, R. N., for distinguished services; by him they were bequeathed in strict entail to his nephew, Captain John Townsend Coffin, R. N., the present proprietor, and to his heirs

male forever.

The value of the various products of the fisheries exported from the Magdalen islands in 1848 was $224,000; but it is believed that this did not include large quantities of such products carried off in fishing vessels not cleared at the custom-house. But even the amount mentioned is quite large as compared with the population, and furnishes proof of the bountiful abundance of the fisheries in the vicinity of the Magdalens, which need only the persevering industry, energy, skill of our fishermen to be rendered a mine of wealth.

and

No. 1.-Statement exhibiting the number of American and foreign vessels, and also their tonnage, employed in the trade between the United States and Canada, which entered in and cleared from the lake ports annually, from 1833 to 1851, inclusive.

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No. 2.-Comparative statement of the total "movement" of property on the ton Bay canals, and St. Anne's Lock, for

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