New Orleans being the point at which this commerce is concentrated, the returns of that place would merely duplicate the commerce; they have, therefore, not been used. But these returns would, also, from the same reason, be highly corroborative evidence of the amount.

Referring to the official returns of the amount of exports and imports of New Orleans for the year 1842, we find them to be $50,566,903, a sufficiently adequate coincidence with the river trade, as just given, to sustain the probable accuracy of the suppositions which have been adopted in reference to that trade, and to justify the amount of exports and imports of New Orleans in being taken as an exhibit of the commerce of the western rivers with that city. For 1842, then, this commerce can be stated at

In 1846, a statement from the Treasury Department makes it

Showing an increase in four years of

or, an average annual increase of 53 per cent.

$50,566,903 62,206,719

$11,639,816

We have, as yet, spoken only of the direct river commerce, and not of the indirect or way commerce, of that immense amount of commodities which is interchanged between city and city, town and town, place and place, on the western rivers, and which forms no part of the New Orleans commerce, but which may be appropriately designated as the coasting commerce of the western rivers.

"The shores of the Mississippi," says the Cincinnati memorial, on both sides, from the mouth of the Ohio downwards, receives supplies of live stock, provisions, machinery, farming implements, cabinet ware, and a great variety of fabrics from the more northern States of the great valley."

"A still more important addition is the trade which passes from town to town, and from State to State, throughout the west, and which is independent of what are termed exports and imports. It is difficult to form any adequate idea of this trade, but we, who see it going forward, and witness the gigantic means required to keep it in operation, know that it forms a large item in the estimate of our trade and industry." Then, after enumerating the items and the trade of places upon which its judgment is founded, the memorial adopts the conclusion that the aggregate of this way trade, or interchange of commodities, is " seventy millions" in addition "to the fifty millions exported through New Orleans." Upon the authority of the Cincinnati memorial, we shall, therefore, adopt for the way commerce for the year 1842, the amount of $70,000,000.

To bring this amount up to 1846, we will apply to it the same average rate of increase, 5 per cent., which the direct river commerce has been found to experience, and the result will be (for 1846) $86,100,000.

From the foregoing exposition, then, the total commerce in merchandise of all kinds, of the western rivers, can be stated for the year 1846 at (net value) $148,306,719.

This amount should be strictly understood as indicating the net value; the floating value cannot be less than double this amount, (the exports of one place being the imports of another,) or equal to $296,613,438 for the year 1846.

STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE WESTERN RIVERS.

The natural facilities of a country are in its water-courses; the artificial are in its improved water courses, its roads and canals. These artificial facilities add also to the development of the resources of a country, by the addition they make to the useful period of human life. There can be no doubt that the rapid interchance of place which steamboats and railroads occasion, from the saving of time, which would otherwise be expended and wasted in traveling, gains in the average to the life of a business man of sixty, five years of his existence, and

enables him to devote that much more time to his occupation. These causes cannot fail greatly to increase and rapidly to develop the resources of a people with whom they exist. The proportion in which they act upon these resources must be left to the development of future statistics.

The Mississippi river is the great natural drain of the immense valley which bears its name. The length of this river now navigable for steamboats, with but partial impediments, may be considered as extending from its mouth to the Falls of St. Anthony-a distance of about 2,000 miles.

Assuming the Mississippi as the great central drain, other rivers will be spoken of as tributaries. And taking the western bank, we have

1st. The Red River-a fine, navigable stream, with some obstructions, however, which pushes its head waters near to the Rio Grande, and is represented, upon good authority, to have two feet of water as high up as old Fort Wachita, a distance of 1,500 miles, by the river route, from its junction with the Mississippi. It is now used in the steamboat transportation of government supplies, for 1,000 miles, by the river, to Fort Towson.

2d. The Arkansas-with a steamboat navigation of 600 miles. Both the Red river and the Arkansas have important tributaries, extending far into the country, and furnishing good flatboat navigation.

3d. The Missouri-with a periodical steamboat navigation of about 1,800 miles, and several important tributaries, furnishing good flatboat navigation. From thence to the head navigable waters of the Mississippi, there are several fine tributaries, adapted to steamboat and to flat and keel boat navigation.

Now, proceeding down the Mississippi on its eastern bank, there are many fine rivers, furnishing good and extensive flat and keel boat navigation for many miles; but the first river on that bank, proceeding downwards, which can be considered as a steamboat river, is the Illinois. It enters the Mississippi about 40 miles above St. Louis, and has a good steamboat navigation, for four months of the year, from its mouth to the La Salle-a distance of 212 miles-where it is united to the Illinois and Michigan canal, and forms the connecting link of navigation between the Mississippi and Lake Michigan.

The next steamboat river is the Ohio, which has good steamboat navigation from its mouth to Pittsburgh, a distance of 1,000 miles.

This river has many important tributaries; the Tennessee, the Cumberland, Green river, Kentucky river, Kenhaway, the Alleghany, Monongahela, Beaver, Muskingum, Scioto, Miami, Wabash, and others of less notoriety, but furnishing, to some extent, good steamboat navigation.

The whole steamboat navigation of the Mississippi and its tributaries can be stated at 16,674 miles, as will be seen from the following table, furnished by Lieutenant-Colonel S. H. Long, of the corps of topographical engineers.

Probable extent of steam navigation on the western waters, including the rivers, bayous, &c., connected with the Mississippi by channels navigable for steamers.

LAKE IMPORTS AT BUFFALO FOR A SERIES OF YEARS.

(From Burke's Report.)

The principal articles received at this point, via the lake, from the opening to the close of navigation for the past five years, were as follows:

FACILITIES OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE GREAT LAKES AND RIVERS AND THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.

The following is a brief sketch of the principal connecting links of the routes of internal commerce, by Col. Albert.

They are divided into two classes: First, those which connect the lakes with the valley of the Mississippi; Second, those which connect the lakes with the Atlantic.

Of the first class

1st. The Illinois and Michigan Canal.-This canal is 963 miles long, 60 feet wide at the water surface, and six feet deep. Its locks, in number 17, are 110 feet long, by 18 feet wide, and the total amount of lockage 158 feet. It connects with the Chicago, which empties into Lake Michigan, within five miles of the lake, up to which point and above, 10 feet of water can be carried from

the lake. The other extremity of the canal is connected with the Illinois river at the town of La Salle, from whence that river has to be used to the Mississippi, through a distance of about 213 miles. Throughout the whole of this distance the Illinois is navigable for flat boats the year round, except during the ice season of winter, and with steamboats for about four months of each year, and partially with steamboats for about eight months.

There is a navigable feeder to this canal, 17 miles long, which enters the canal 20 miles west of Chicago. This feeder extends to the Kalymick river, at a point within 20 miles of the Indiana state line, and opens to the canal the trade of the Kalymick. The Kalymick empties into Lake Michigan, about 13 miles south of Chicago, and the point on the river at which the feeder is connected with it, is about six miles from the junction of the river with the lake. By these means a second communication is formed between the canal and the lake. The entrance of the Kalymick from the lake, is yet unimproved, but it is capable of being made an entrance for first class steamers. After entering the river, not less than 10 feet of water can be carried up to (and above) the point of junction with the feeder. There is, also, a second navigable feeder, 50 miles west of Chicago, five miles long, and connecting with the Kankakee river, by means of which great facilities are furnished to the trade of a large portion of Indiana, through which the Kankakee passes. These feeders are forty feet wide and four feet deep. The canal and its feeders are now in active progress of construction. It is confidently stated that the whole will be completed by January ensuing, and open for use next spring.

2d. Wabash and Erie Canal.-The Wabash river empties into the Ohio, about 130 miles above the junction of the latter with the Mississippi. The canal takes its origin at Lafayette, about 378 miles up the Wabash. It is 187 miles long, and is connected with the Maumee river at Toledo, immediately adjacent to Lake Erie. The distance from Lafayette to Toledo is completed and in use, and the plan now in contemplation is to extend the canal from Lafayette to the Ohio. About 75 miles westward from Toledo, upon the canal, at a place called Junction, a connection is formed with the Miami canal from Cincinnati. This canal is 180 miles long, 40 feet wide at water surface, and four feet deep, and the locks, 85 in number, are 90 feet long by 15 feet wide. I am not able to state the dimensions of the Miami canal, but of course they are not less than those of the Cincinnati branch.

I have stated that it was in contemplation to extend the canal from Lafay ette, down the valley of the Wabash, to the Ohio. Already 88 miles of this extension, to the town of Terre Haute, is in progress, where a connection will be established between the canal and the river, and from which point, to the Ohio, the river will be used until the whole extension to the Ohio be completed. The Wabash and Erie canal has, therefore, two connections with the valley of the Mississippi by the medium of the Ohio; one by the way of the Wabash river, from Terre Haute to its mouth, and the other by way of the Cincinnati Branch canal, usually called the Miami canal.

The navigation of the Wabash river from Terre Haute down to the Ohio is good for flat boats during nine months, and for steamboats during about four months.

The length of the Muskingum improvement is 91 miles, including the extent above Zanesville, to accommodate which there is a lock 120 feet long and 22 feet wide. (But that part of the improvement, which constitutes the improvement between the Ohio and Lake Erie, is miles long, in which there are 11 locks, 175 feet long by 36 feet wide.) The distance from the Ohio to Lake Erie, by this route, is 238 miles.

3d. Sandy and Beaver Canal.-This canal 'leaves the Ohio and Erie canal at Bolivar, 229 miles from Portsmouth and 80 miles from Cleveland, uniting with the Ohio 76 miles from Bolivar, at the mouth of Little Beaver, thence to Beaver, where it unites with the Beaver division of the Pennsylvania canal.