BOATS AND PASSENGERS. On boats used chiefly for the transportation of persons, navigating the On the same, if they elect to commute for tolls upon passengers, per mile.. STATISTICS OF THE BRITISH STEAM NAVY. 040 5 0 0 2 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 5 Of screw steamships, according to the Liverpool Times, afloat, England has at the present moment eleven line-of-battle ships, soon to be increased to twenty; five guardships, and seven powerful frigates, independent of smaller vessels. The following are the names, number of guns, horse-power, and stations of the most powerful of the screw fleet: In addition to the above the following screw steamships are building, and will probably be afloat in a few months: The following are the most powerful paddle-wheel steamers now afloat:— BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD, We have obtained the following very interesting and official statement of the present condition of the funded debt of this road, by a review of which the experienced reader will be able to arrive at a pretty accurate estimate of the general financial prospects of the company, for the residue of the fiscal year: The funded debt of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, as appears by its report made to 30th of September, 1853, as follows: Making the whole funded debt of the company at that time 8,389,481 64 1,218,153 75 9,607,635 39 Treasurer's Office, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, March 31st, 1854. 10,118,902 00 J. I. ATKINSON, Treasurer. From the above it will be seen that the entire funded debt, upon which interest accrues, is $9,607,635 39. Since the annual report of the president was made, it will be seen that $1,218,153 75, being the residue of the loan of 1885, has been realized. This amount, with the net earnings of the road for the past six months, together with $245,000 to the credit of revenue from the last year, making some $2,200,000 in all, has been applied to the reduction of the floating debt, and to construction, which is constantly progressing. This is a highly favorable exhibit of the state of the road, and affords the assurance that, with no unforseen contingency to affect the reasonable anticipations for the future, the company will be in a condition at the close of the fiscal year to dispose of a very considerable amount, as policy may dictate. THE RAILROADS OF MAINE IN 1853. We give below the returns made by the several companies to the office of the Secretary of State in Maine :: In addition to the above, the Boston and Maine (Mass.) Company owns some three miles in the State, but they keep only one account showing the cost and operations of the entire lipe from Boston to the South Berwick Junction. The average cost of the road, however, is about $49,600 per mile. Adding the three miles of the Boston and Maine Road, there is now finished and in operation 409 miles of railway, costing some thirteen millions of dollars. THE RAILROADS OF VIRGINIA. We publish annually in the Merchants' Magazine, a carefully prepared statement of the length of railroads in each of the States. Alluding to this statement, which is generally transferred to other journals, the Winchester Virginian remarks: Virginia has been credited for much less than her actual share of railway enterprise. To do her justice in this respect, before her own citizens as well as those of other States, we decided to compile the subjoined list of the lines now under way within her limits or in the hands of her people. Among them are three lines, the greater part of each of which lies within Virginia, the Seaboard and Roanoke, Petersburg, and Hicksford and Gaston; and one which is principally, we believe, in North Carolina, but prosecuted mainly by Virginia capital. This is the Clarksville and Ridgeway, a link in the route from Norfolk to the Upper Roanoke. The 251 miles of the Baltimore and Ohio Road lying in this State are excluded from the sum, because on the principle we follow in the case of the above-named roads, they are assigned to Maryland. This list will, we think, be found very nearly correct. It will be seen that Virginia has, in round numbers, 800 miles of railway in operation; 700 building; and 500 more in the hands of organized companies, every mile of which will doubtless be made in a few years. About 250 miles will probably be added to the finished track during 1854. Besides those we have named, there are others projected, to the extent of perhaps 1,000 miles or more. NEW RAILROAD SWITCH. An improvement in the operation of railroad switches has been made by Asa A. Simmons, Narrowsburgh, N. Y. It consists in attaching one end of the ordinary connecting rod of a switch to a circular plate at any point between the center of said plate and its periphery, according to the length of stroke required. The circular plate is attached to one end of a horizontal shaft, at the opposite end of which there is a lever, by which the peculiar plate and shaft are turned, and the connecting rod and switch moved. An index is secured to the circular plate, for the purpose of denoting the exact position of the switch. Measures have been taken to secure a patent. STEAMBOAT ENGINEERS AND PILOTS. In November last the supervising inspectors of steamboats, appointed under the Act of August 30th, 1852, met in convention at Cincinnati, and the report of their doings has just been published. It contains the following statistics of the several districts. 1st District.-Portland Vessels Pilots Engineers licensed. Tonnage inspected. 16 16 11 3,491 8,568 4,926 Philadelphia 36 3d District.-Baltimore 13,112 Norfolk 2,164 52 6,865 Savannah 8 10 24 .... 46 Memphis, &c. 17 6th District.-Louisville 19,758 Nashville.. 3,401 18,392 24 5,321 32 19,518 Cleveland 14 7 14 According to the Chicago Democrat, the Griffith was the first vessel that floated upon the Western lakes. She was of 60 tons burden, completely rigged, and on board were seven small pieces of cannon, two of them brass. The keel was laid by La Salle, at Cayuga, six miles above Niagara Falls, on the 26th of January, 1679; and after experiencing great difficulty in ascending Niagara, on the 7th of August she floated upon the water of Lake Erie. A voyage was made to Green Bay, which was reached early in September. On the 18th, the vessel in charge of a pilot and five others, and laden with a rich cargo of furs, was sent back to the Niagara. Nothing was ever heard of her; but about the beginning of this century, upon a farm in Erie County, New York, near Eighteen Mile Creek, a large quantity of wrought iron, supposed to weight 700 or 800 pounds, and evidently taken from a vessel, was found much eaten by rust. About fifteen years after, inmediately succeeding a heavy blow and in the same vicinity upon the beach, was found the breech of a cannon, and under it another. Words, evidently in the French Language, were upon them, and they were probably all that remained of the Griffith. The Walk-in-the-Water, the first steamboat upon the lakes, was built at Buffalo in 1812, by Dr. Stewart, and named after a Wyandot chief who lived at Mogwago, on the Detroit River. The boat left Buffalo on her first trip on the 1st of November, 1818, under command of Captain Fish. Dr. Stewart told Mr. B. F. Stickney, at the time of her first trip, that including what he paid Fulton and Livingston for their patent, it cost him $70,000. In a letter written by Gouveneur Morris, in the year 1801, six years before the first steamboat, he stated that Lake Erie would float a ship of 1,000 tons burden. We believe the first steamboat of 1,000 tons burden upon Long Island Sound was the Oregon, built in 1845; and the first upon the Hudson River, the Hendrik Hudson, 1,936 tons, built the same year. The Western waters were in advance of those of the East, as the Empire, built at Cleveland in 1844, measured 1,136 tons. NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. ADDITIONAL LIGHTHOUSE AT THE ENTRANCE OF PORT PHILIP, ALSO BEACON ON SWAN RIVER. LIGHTHOUSE AT THE ENTRANCE OF PORT PHILIP. The second lighthouse at Shortland's Bluff, being now nearly conpleted, on and after the 1st day of January next a fixed red light will be exhibited thereon, from sunset to sunrise. The leading lighthouse tower is built of wood, painted white, and stands at an elevation of 80 feet above the level of the water, bearing from the center of the upper lighthouse on Shortland's Bluff, south, thirty-three degrees west, distant six hundred and seventy feet. The leading light will be seen in ordinary weather ten miles to seaward, within the bearings of south one-quarter west round (westerly) to southwest one quarter west. The two lighthouses by day, and lights by night, kept in one line of bearing, lead in a mid-channel between Point Lonsdale and Nepean; but strangers are cautioned not to attempt the entrance by night, nor against the strength of the ebb tide by day. BEACON ON SWAN RIVER. A cone shaped iron beacon, painted white, elevated 50 feet above the level of the water, has been erected on Swan Point, bearing from the low lighthouse on Shortland's Bluff, north 41 degrees east. This beacon, kept open to the eastward of the low Lighthouse, leads in clear of Point Lonsdale Reef: and the flagstaff on Shortland's Bluff kept half a cable's length open to the Westward of the low Lighthouse, leads in clear of the Corsair Rock, and the other sunken dangers lying off Point Nepean; but, in all practicable cases, mariners waiting the turn of tide, entering or leaving the harbor, are recommended to keep the Point Lonsdale shore aboard, as the tide there runs fairer, and in bad weather small vessels incur less risk on the Point Lonsdale shore from the tide ripple, than towards point Nepean. No alteration has taken place in the upper Lighthouse on Shortland's Bluff, which is as heretofore a Bright Stationary Light, one hundred and nine (109) feet above the level of the water, seen in ordinary weather twenty (20) miles to seaward, within the bearings of South round by West to Southwest by West. The bearings are by compass, and hights at mean high water. NAVIGATION INTO SPITHEAD. NOTICE TO MARINERS. TRINITY HOUSE, LONDON, 5th April, 1854. It having been determined, in communication with the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that a floating light vessel shall be placed to mark the channel between the Horse and Warner Shoals, notice thereof is hereby given, and that the said vessel will be moored in a suitable position on the west side of the channel near to the Warner Shoal; and the light exhibited thereat on the evening of the 1st of May next, and thenceforth continued every night from sunset to sunrise. At this station, a single revolving light of the natural color will be shown. Farther particulars in respect of the exact position of this vessel will be published in due course. By order, J. HERBERT, Secretary. THE LIGHT SHIPS IN THE CATTEGAT. MINISTRY OF NAVAL AFFAIRS, 14th March, 1854. All the floating lights are now laid out and lighted. Moreover, it is made publicly known hereby, that the light vessels at Loesso Trindelen, at Kobbergrunden, and at the Anhold Knob, are in the future to be laid up on the 31st of December, supposing the ice permits them to remain on their station till then, and they will not then be laid out again before the 1st of March. |