The entire number of vessels and crews of the interior trade amounts to 140 bottoms, and 5,837 men, in excess of the whole ocean and coast navy, though the tonnage employed in the latter is smaller by 7,775

tons.

It is for this wealthy commerce of the interior that all the Atlantic cities are now striving, in earnest competition, by the creation of new outlets and avenues, for its transaction; and this very competition is good evidence that all the eastern or New England and middle States are, in some sort, more or less affected by it.

The great system of exchange between the cities of the ocean seaboard and the entire West is transacted through the lakes, and the channels connected with them; and it is not uninteresting to observe that the increase of the population in the Atlantic States, and that of the tonnage of the West, have kept even pace with each other.

N. W. States-
population.

In this scheme it must be observed that the six New England States, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, possess an area of 63,326 square miles, with a population of 2,728,106, being 43.09 persons to the square mile.

The Middle States, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, possess an area of 100,320 square miles, with a population of 5,898,735, or 58.80 persons to the square mile; while the northwestern States, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and the Minnesota Territory, have an area of 373,259 square miles, with a population of 4,721,430, or 12.70 persons to the square mile.

When this last division shall have become as densely populated as the middle States now are, it will contain a population, directly tributary to the trade of the lakes, of 22,000,000 of souls; and there is every reason to believe that the increase of population will be as rapid, until that result shall be fully attained, as it has been since 1800. How wonderful and grand a spectacle will it then be to many, doubtless, of those now born, when, at the commencement of the twentieth century, this lake country shall be seen supporting a population of so many millions! And what will then be the amount and value of that trade, and the aggregate tonnage of that marine, which has sprung up, in less than forty years, from nothing to two hundred thousand tons of steam and shipping! It is stated that the entire amount of appropriations made by government, for the benefit of all rivers and harbors, since its first organization, has been $17,199,233, of which only $2,790,999 were devoted to the lakes, the balance being all for the Atlantic coast and rivers; and that, too, in face of the facts, that in consequence of several unavoidable disadvantages, in the present condition of the lake coasts and harbors, there is greater proportional loss of life on these waters than on the ocean itself and all its tributary seas.

It may be well to note here the loss of property and life by marine disasters on the lakes, which are not only in themselves most lamentable, but which become far more deplorable when it is considered that at a small outlay the navigation could be rendered as safe, at the least, as that of any other waters.

The disadvantages alluded to above are to be found in the facts, that while the lakes are exposed to squalls, gales, and tempests, as violent as those of the ocean, they have not sufficient sea room to allow of a vessel scudding before the weather, since, if the gale were of any duration, she would soon run from one end to the other of the lake, on which she might be caught, and so incur fresh and perhaps greater danger. In like manner, the breadth of these basins is so comparatively diminutive, and so much beset with dangerous reefs and rocky islands, that a vessel cannot long lie to, in consequence of the terrible and insidious drift which is ever liable to drive her to unforeseen destruction. The following table will exhibit the loss of life and property incurred during the four last succeeding years, which are surely disastrous enough to plead trumpet-tongued with government for the extending some means of security and protection to the navigators of those perilous seas of the interior.

The excess of lives lost in 1850 was occasioned by the explosion of the boilers on board two steamers, and the burning of the third, which had on board a large number of emigrants; this may be therefore in some degree deemed accidental and extraordinary, as such catastrophes are of rare occurrence on the lakes. The great preponderance, however, of the year 1851 over those of 1848 and 1849, has no such palliation, since they were the effect of heavy gales, the absence of harbors necessary for the protection of mariners, and the obstruction of the mouths of such as do exist, by bars, on which a terrible surf breaks, and which entirely preclude the possibility of entering the place to which they have in vain fled for refuge. It is of little benefit to the mariner that the government has expended comparatively inconsiderable amounts in the erection of piers and light-houses at the entrance of a few barmouthed rivers and harbors.

The total of the losses on the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific coasts, in the year 1851, amounted to 328 vessels, and many hundred lives, out of a total marine measuring 3,556,464 tons, being a loss of one vessel to every 10,844 tons of shipping.

The lake losses of the same year were 42 vessels, and 79 lives, out of a marine measuring 215,975 tons, being a loss of one vessel to every 5,142 tons of shipping. The proportion of vessels lost on the lakes is therefore much in excess of the losses on the ocean coasts, and that of lives still more so.

In this point of consideration it is worthy of remark that a single powerful government steam-dredge could be kept continually in commission, and employed during seven months of the year, which could, with perfect ease, remove the obstructions on the flats of Lake St. Clair and Lake St. George, open the bars, and deepen the beds of all the harbors, from one extremity of the lakes to the other, in the course of a very few years, and keep them unobstructed, thenceforth to the end of time, by an annual appropriation of one-fourth the amount of the augmented compensation recently granted to the Collins line of steamers; and, of course, two such vessels, materially lessening the duration of the work, for one-half that appropriation.

Nor does it appear that the opening an area so vast to the enterprise and efficiency of our inland commerce, giving perfect protection to so important a branch of the national marine as that employed in the navigation of the lakes, is an end less worthy than the furthering and encouraging any system of post office transportation, and ocean steam

marine, however incomparable its deserts; and this without regarding the preservation of what is generally held invaluable among earthly things-the life of human beings.

The expediency and justice are thus shown of extending some meed of protection and encouragement to the regions, with their ports, harbors, and marine communications, which are the theatre of a commerce so valuable as that for which all the Atlantic cities are contending; and to perfect the internal and inland communications of which, by canals and railroads, the young States, in which that theatre is placed, are making so great efforts.

The policy of doing so cannot but be seen on considering the effect which the construction of railways, the opening of canals, and the facilitation by all means of transportation and intercommunication, has upon the growth of cities, the population, cultivation, wealth and prosperity of districts, which actually seem to grow and expand in arithinetical progression to the ratio of their improved accessibility, and the number of their outlets and avenues for commerce and immigration.

It may not, therefore, be now impertinent to examine the operation of these influences on the unparalleled increase of the West, which can in fact be traced directly to these causes.

It has been shown already that, however remote the period of the discovery, exploration and partial colonization of these wilds and waters, anything like practical navigation of them for commercial purposes was unattempted until after the commencement of this century. In 1679 a French craft indeed was launched at Erie, Pennsylvania, for the expedition of the celebrated and unfortunate La Salle; but this, which was an experiment for a special purpose, wholly unconnected with trade, was not followed up. În 1797, as has been before stated, the first American vessel was launched on the lakes. In 1816 the first steamer was built on the waters of Lake Ontario, and the first on Lake Erie in 1818. For some considerable time the first vessels put in commission on Lake Erie were used merely for facilitating the movements and operations of the Indian traders, carrying westward supplies and trinkets for the trade, and returning with cargoes of furs and peltries. In 1825 the Erie canal was completed, and its influence began at once to be felt through the western country. The western portion of the State of New York immediately began to assume an air of civilization and to advance in commercial growth. This influence continued still to increase until the Welland canal and the Ohio canals were completed. The tonnage, which had then increased to about 20,000 tons, found at this time full employment in carrying emigrants and their supplies westward, which continued to be their principal trade till 1835, when Ohio began to export breadstuffs and provisions to a small extent. In 1800 Ohio had 45,000 inhabitants; in 1810, 230,760; in 1820, 581,434; in 1530, 937,903.

During this year a portion of the canals was opened, and during the ten years next ensuing after 1830 some five hundred miles of canals had been completed, connecting the lakes by two lines with the Ohio. Under the influence of these improvements the population of the State augmented to 1,519,467 individuals. In 1835 she exported by the lakes the equivalent of 543,815 bushels of wheat. In 1840 her ex

ports of the same article over the same waters were equivalent to 3,800,000 bushels of wheat, being an increase, in the space of five years, in the articles of wheat and flour, of what is equal to 3,300,000 bushels of wheat, or nearly six hundred per centum. These articles are selected, as being the most bulky, in order to illustrate the effect of canals upon lake commerce. At this period, 1840, there were not completed over two hundred miles of railway in the State, and this distance was composed of broken portions of roads, no entire route existing as yet across the length or breadth of the State. In 1850, there were in operation something over four hundred miles of railroad, and rather a greater length of canals, while the population had increased to 1,908,408, and her exports, by lake, of wheat and flour, were equivalent to 5,754,075 bushels of wheat, and that, too, in spite of the fact that the c: op of 1849 was almost an absolute failure throughout the West.

In 1851 the exports of wheat and flour, by lake, were equivalent to no less than 12,193,202 bushels of wheat; and the cost of freight and shipping charges on this amount of produce falls little, if any, short of $510,000; nearly the whole amount having reached the lakes via the canals and railways of Ohio.

Similar sketches of the other northwestern States, during their rise and advancement to their present condition of prosperity, and influence on the confederation, might be adduced in this place, all equally flattering to the energy and enterprise of the western people, and to the influence of internal improvement on commerce; but this narrative of the eldest State of the group will suffice to illustrate the subject, and give some idea of the unexampled progress of the whole.

Westward of Ohio, the Wabash canal brings the vast productions of Indiana to the lakes, passing through a small portion of Ohio, from the port of Toledo to the junction, thence to Evansville, on the Ohio river, and traversing the entire length of the Wabash valley, one of the finest wheat and corn countries in all the West. This canal is four hundred and sixty-four miles in length, and is one of the most important of recent improvements.

it

It is worthy of note here that, in addition to its vast commercial business by the great lakes, Ohio, and more particularly its commercial capital, Cincinnati, the largest, wealthiest, and finest city of the west, and the great emporium of that region, has an immense commerce, both in exports and imports, by the rivers Ohio and Mississippi; and appears that a larger portion of groceries are imported for the use of the interior, into Cincinnati, by the river, than to the lake-board, via the lakes; and farther, that while a much larger portion of the trade in cereal produce goes by the lakes, a majority of the live stock and animal provisions is sent by the rivers or otherwise. No ill effect is produced, however, on either commercial route, by this competition, but rather the reverse, there being times when either route alone is closed to navigation-the lakes during the winter by the ice, and the Ohio by the failure of its waters during the summer droughts. There is, moreover, commerce enough amply to sustain both channels; and while the State, its beautiful capital in particular, is a great gainer, no port or place of business is a loser by this two-fold avenue and outlet for commercial transportation.