The capital employed in agriculture is not given; nor is it in some other branches. The table must, therefore, be considered as incomplete, and as only an approximation to the true amount of active capital employed.

VALUE of Cottons, Woollens, Silks, Linens, and Manufactures of Flax, Hemp, Iron, and Steel, Imported into the United States annually, from 1821 to 1844.

VALUE of Earthern, Stone, and China ware, Specie and Bullion, Wines, Spirits, Molasses, and Teas, Imported into the United States annually, from 1821 to 1844.

For the nine months ending the 30th of June, 1843, Congress having changed the day ending the fiscal and commercial year from the 30th of September to the year ending the 30th of June, 1843, and so on for all following years.

VALUE of the various Manufactures of the United States, Exported in each Year, from 1827 to 1840, inclusive.

*Not distinguished until 1834.

VALUE of Manufactures of the United States, Exported during the Years, ending the 30th of
September, 1841 and 1842; and the Nine Months, ending the 30th of June, 1843.

One principal cause of the growth of American Manufactures, is the difficulty
which the citizens of the United States of America experience in paying for those
of the United Kingdom; arising from our non-admission of American corn, ex-
cept at exorbitant duties, unless during periods of extreme scarcity in England.
The Americans are now exulting over the fallacy of British legislation, in regard
to corn and food, and they extol the increase of their own manufactures.

In the New York Express, April, 1845, we find the following remarks on the
progress of manufactures in America:-

"The manufacturing interest of this country, at the present time, is extending itself faster than
at any period since we have begun to manufacture for ourselves. From Maine to the extreme
west and south-west, every spindle and loom is at work-many of the mills with orders for their
works for months a-head. Water is no longer the sole motive power of factories, and, in the
most favoured localities at the east, for manufactories this power has long been exhausted, and the
never-failing power of steam has been resorted to. In Newburyport and Boston, factories of this
class are now in course of erection, and even Lowell has now more factories building which are to
be propelled by steam than by water. At no time have there been more new mills building, or
the old ones more active than at present; four new mills, of the largest size, are to be erected this
summer, and large additions made to the old ones-in all, not less than 25,000 looms. At the
new city of looms,' on the Merrimack, at Haverhill, active preparations are making to commence
their dam, which, when completed, will furnish a water-power that will not be exhausted in half a
century of prosperous manufacturing. In New Hampshire and Maine, there is the same tendency
to invest capital in manufacturing; cotton mills are the favoured stocks, but other articles are not
forgotten or neglected. In Maine, charters have been granted for thirteen cotton and woollen
mills, and two iron factories; the old companies have also added largely to their capital stocks;
and at no time has Maine been so decidedly in favour of manufacturing as at present. At Buffalo,
there has been a large mill started, with every prospect of success. At St. Louis, and numerous
other points in the west, in Mississippi and Georgia, new mills are erecting. At Baltimore and
Georgetown, several flour mills have been altered to cotton mills; and all through the country
there is seen a general wish to make investments in this way."

671

CHAPTER XIII.

INTERNAL NAVIGATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

THERE is no part of the world so extensively favoured by nature with the facilities and power of internal intercourse, as the vast empire comprised within the United States of America. The rivers which descend into the Atlantic,-even those of the New England States, although their navigable courses from the mountains to the sea be comparatively limited, are all important as channels for the transport of commodities. The state of Maine has, by its inlets and rivers, abundant water communication, and requires but little aid from artificial construction. Where most wanted, canals and railroads have been opened or projected (for which, and the rivers of the state, see Maine). New Hampshire has several rivers, the navigation of which, where interrupted, has, in several parts, been improved by artificial means. Vermont has Lake Champlain, and numerous navigable streams. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, have extended the means of internal transport by canals and railroads, which communicate between the principal seaport towns and the navigable termination of inland rivers. Railroads open a rapid intercourse direct from the Atlantic, at Boston, to the Hudson, at Albany. The Hudson, that great artery of trade and intercourse within the state of New York, opens extensive and convenient channels of transport to and from the interior,-to and from Lakes Champlain, Ontario, and Erie, with which the Hudson is in communication, by canals and railways; and, by all these, an internal navigation is opened from the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence to the waters and regions of the FAR WEST. Railroads and canals traverse the Jerseys, to Delaware bay and river. The Susquehanna,— the Ohio,—that great inlet, Chesapeake bay,—the Potomac, and numerous other streams, and canals, and railroads, extend navigation and the means of intercourse over the greater part of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia. When the projected and unfinished canals and railways are completed, the means of internal transport will be extended to all important points of these states.

The rivers and inlets of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, are nearly all on a scale of minor extent, or rather depth; but they are important in affording facilities, improved by the railways and canals which have been constructed, in bringing the produce of the interior to market. Alabama has several navigable, but not deep, rivers.

The magnificent regions of the west are traversed by the great navigable waters of the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and the numerous rivers which low into them from the east, north, and west. Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior complete this vast extent of internal navigation.

We have, in the first part of this work, given a detailed account of the great lakes; and, in our special account of each state (which see), we have described the bays, harbours, and rivers of each. The Mississippi, Missouri, and some of their great branches, require some further description.

The MISSISSIPPI, or Missi-Sepe, in the Algonquin Indian language, which prevails in its upper parts, means Great river. Its source, according to the explorations of Schoolcraft, July 13th, 1832, is Itasca Lake, 47 deg. 10 min. north latitude, and 95 deg. 54 min. west longitude, at an elevation of about 1350 feet, and at a distance of 3160 miles, above the Gulf of Mexico. Itasca Lake is romantically situated among hills clothed with pines. The outlet of the lake is only from ten to twelve feet broad, and from twelve to eighteen inches deep. This first stream of the Great River is little more than a mere brook, flowing north and north-easterly to Lake Cass, about 184 miles, from thence it winds, generally in a south-east, south-south-westerly, and south-southeasterly direction, frequently over rapids, to the Big Falls, and thence about sixty miles further to the Falls of St. Anthony. Vessels do not ascend the river over these falls; and they pass below, over several rapids, even as low down as Rivière des Moines. The country above the Falls of St. Anthony we have described, as well as the principal tributaries which fall into the Mississippi, above, and, for a considerable distance, below and west of those falls, in our separate account of Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Western Territory. Most of those tributaries, although interrupted by some falls, and several rapids, afford, by boats and canoes, extensive and convenient means of inland transport.

The Mississippi, with its great and lesser tributaries, drain all the regions which extend from the Alleghany chain to the Rocky Mountains, with the exception of the lands drained by the streams which fall into the St. Lawrence and the great lakes.

Mr. Schoolcraft has described the Mississippi more intelligibly, and at greater length, than any other traveller. He had followed its stream, from its mouths, or delta, to its source. No other traveller had done so before him. We do not know that any other one traveller has followed his example. We have also examined the local descriptions of other authorities. It is remarkable that the greatest rivers in North and South America should have been first discovered, not upwards from their confluence with the sea, but downwards from one of their upper or main branches. The Amazon was first navigated, down to the Atlantic, by an European, Orellana, in a frail craft built near the foot of the Andes. In this vessel he floated down the Naco, an upper tributary, to the main stream of the Amazon, and thence, without compass, and through unknown regions, to the ocean.

The Mississippi was discovered in 1672, by the Jesuit, Father Marquette,