tons. The number of steamboats on the western rivers, January 1, 1834, was, according to 8,484 2,585 1,617 1,002 2,116 8,641 14,653 39,000 Four between Florence and New Orleans Four in the St. Louis trade..................... Seven in the cotton trade ..... Fifty-seven not in established trades, from 120 to 200 tons.. The residue under 120 tons in various trades Total............ The annual expense of running these boats was estimated at 4,644,000 dollars. The number of flat bottom and keel boats has been calculated at 4000, with a tonnage amounting to 160,000 tons; making the whole tonnage on the western rivers, about 200,000 tons. In the autumn of 1834, the number of American steamboats on Lake Erie was thirty-one, whose average tonnage was about 343 tons each, the number of schooners 234, averaging eighty-five tons, and three brigs, with an average tonnage of 215 tons. Making the whole tonnage of the west, exclusive of that of canal-boats, about 230,000 tons. The Cincinnati gazette furnishes a complete list of the steamboats built and fitted out at that port during the year 1844, with a statement of the cost and tonnage of each. The whole number, was thirty-eight. The number built in 1843, was thirty-six. In the statement of either year, the boats built at other points within the Cincinnati district, are not included. The lists embrace only those built at Cincinnati. "The aggregate tonnage of these thirty-eight boats (custom-house measurement), is 8248 tons and the aggregate cost 568,000 dollars. Of the thirty-six boats built in 1843, the aggregate custom-house measurement was 8415 tons, and the aggregate cost 605,250 dollars. Of the boats built in Cincinnati in 1844, the average size is 219 tons, and the average cost 14,947 dollars. Of those built there in 1843, the average size was 236 tons, and the average cost 16,812 dollars. The cost per ton of the boats built in Cincinnati in 1844, was 68 dollars 873 cents; the cost per ton of those built there in 1843, was 71 dollars 94 cents. These are interesting facts; and, for the purpose of presenting them more directly to the eye at a glance, we construct the following table : "A late number of the Pittsburg Morning Herald gives the names of 437 steamboats navigating the western and south-western waters; tonnage, in 1840, as follows : : According to a statement in the Merchants' Magazine, in 1842 the navigation of the Mississippi was as follows: 66 There were 450 steamers, averaging each 200 tons, and making an aggregate tonnage of 90,000, so that it has a good deal more than doubled in eight years. Valued at eighty dollars the ton, they cost above 7,000,000 dollars, and are navigated by nearly 16,000 persons, at thirty-five to each. Besides these steamers, there are about 4000 flat-boats, which cost each 105 dollars, are managed by five hands a-piece (or 20,000 persons), and make an annual expense of 1,380,000 dollars. The estimated annual expense of the steam navigation, including fifteen per cent for insurance, and twenty per cent for wear and tear, is 13,618,000 dollars. If, in 1834, they employed an aggregate of 90,000 persons, they must now occupy at least 180,000. The boats, ever in motion when the state of the waters in which they ply permits, probably average each some twenty trips in the year. Those running from New Orleans to the more distant points of the river, make from eight to fifteen trips in the year; while those carrying the great trade from Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and Louisville, to St. Louis, perform some thirty annual trips. Others run between still nearer ports, and make more frequent voyages. But at twenty each, and carrying burdens far beyond their mere admeasurement of tonnage, their collective annual freight would be 1800 tons; to which, if that of 4000 flat-boats (each seventy-five tons) be added, we have a total freight, for the entire annual navigation of the Mississippi, of about 2,000,000 tons. The commerce which they convey (omitting the great number of passengers whom they waft in some 9000 trips) is of two sorts: that of the export trade to New Orleans, and that of supply and interchange between the different regions lying on the Mississippi and its tributaries. The latter is well ascertained to be considerably greater, as naturally happens in the internal trade of all wide and commercial countries, whose dealings with foreign lands never fail to fall far short of their exchanges with each other. The statistics collected at the two main points where the best means of information can be commanded (St. Louis and Cincinnati), estimate this internal traffic of the productions of the country itself at not less than 70,000,000 dollars annually; while those commodities shipped to New Orleans for exportation, are found to be 50,000,000 dollars more. The downward trade may thus be stated at 120,000,000 dollars; the upward, or return trade of foreign goods, or of those brought up the river from other parts of the Union, is reckoned at about 100,000,000 dollars. Thus, the entire amount of commodities conveyed upon the waters of the Mississippi does not, upon the best estimates, fall short of 220,000,000 dollars annually, which is but 30.000,000 dollars less than the entire value of the foreign trade of the United States exports and imports in 1841." TABLE of Distances on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to the Falls of St. Anthony, on the Upper Mississippi. The charge or fare for passage on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers is about three dollars per 100 miles for long distances, and four to five cents per mile for short distances. Deck passengers, one dollar per 100 miles. The usual speed of the boats is six miles an hour up stream, and from ten to twelve down. An important point of internal trade on the Ohio river, is the Portland and Louisville canal, through which the navigation of that great river passes. STATEMENT of the Number of Boats that have passed through the Portland and Louisville Canal and Amount of Tolls received, during the undermentioned Years. The trade of New Orleans with the upper countries of the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri, and especially the produce and merchandise brought, during several years, downwards to that city, will be found detailed in our account of New Orleans. The principal places situated on the banks of the Mississippi and its tribu taries, between New Orleans and the mouths of the Ohio and Missouri, we have described in the account we have given of the respective states. The great entrepôts of the internal trade of the upper counties are St. Louis and Cincinnati. St. Louis, as late as the year 1836, was little more than a trading village; now (1845) contains a population of probably 40,000. (See description of the state of Missouri and its towns.) A great portion of the trade of the states of Illinois and Missouri, and the territories of Iowa and Wisconsin, centre at this town. Bricks in great quantity; and deals, boards, &c., produced by numerous steam saw-mills, and by several mills for planing; the produce of white-lead factories, grist-mills, oil-mills, and other fabrics also create an active trade. The amount of marine insurances effected at St. Louis, including boat-hulls and cargoes, and comprising only property floating on the rivers, is stated, in 1842, to have been 58,021,986 dollars. The leading articles of export from St. Louis and of the adjacent country, of which it is the emporium, are lead, tobacco, furs, and peltries, hemp, flour, wheat, and other agricultural products; also horses, mules, hogs, and live cattle of various sorts, which are shipped to the south in flat or keel-boats. The lead-mines of Washington, and other southern counties, are below St. Louis; although the lead is chiefly shipped from that port, by boats, to New Orleans. The quantities of this article received at St. Louis, from the Galena mines, for three years, ending in 1841, were as follow: The quantity of lead received at New Orleans, for the same period, was as follows: STATEMENT of the Shipments of Lead from Galena and Dubuqué, and all other Points on the Upper Mississippi, for 1841, 1842, and 1843. "The above statement of the shipments of lead made from this section of the country this season, compared with that of 1841 and 1842, together with the number of steamboat departures, and number of keels and barges towed; shows 561,321 pigs against 447,859 pigs in 1842, and in small bar lead, 2410 pigs against 840 pigs; showing an actual increase in the shipments of lead To which should be added that stopped by ice in 1842, Making an actual increase in the supply of . 115,032 pigs 25,142 "That made into shot, say 5000 pigs, has gone to supply the lake borders, as well as the lead shipped that way. The steamboat arrivals show an increase of 49 over 1842, being 244 against 195. "The article of Wisconsin copper is attracting notice, and will become a valuable article in the trade of this country. Our shipments this year amount in value to, say 11,000 dollars, and will, I think, in 1844, double that amount. In the Boston market it commands the same price as Peruvian copper, and with one house has the preference over it. "The value of the lead exported from here this year may be set down at 563,731 pigs of 70 lbs.=39,461,171 lbs.; at two dollars twentyseven cents and one-third And copper. dlrs. cts. 937,202 00 11,000 00 Of the tobacco crop of Missouri, it is stated, by a house engaged in the trade, that the shipments, during the year 1841, were about 9000 hogsheads, of which 8500 passed through St. Louis, and of the subjoined quality and value : :dollars. dollars. 175 350,000 120-300,000 The crop for 1843, was estimated at above 12,000 hogsheads. The trade of the American Fur Company, and that of independent fur traders, including the fur trade of nearly all the northern and north-western Indians within the jurisdiction of the United States, concentrates at St. Louis. The value, to that city, of the trade in cloths, blankets, and other fabrics used in the fur trade traffic, exclusive of annuities, the pay of hands, and the outfits for expeditions, boats, &c., has been estimated, by individuals familiar with the trade, as exceeding 225,000 dollars. It has been computed that the exportation of furs, buffalo-robes, and peltries, the proceeds of that trade, which go to the Atlantic cities, independently of the home consumption, and the quantity sent to the Ohio and other parts of the west, during the year 1841, was between 350,000 dollars and 400,000 dollars; and that the entire fur trade for that year could not fall short of 500,000 dollars. This trade includes the furs and skins that were collected by the various Indian tribes from the Mississippi to the Pacific, and from the Columbia to the California. Hemp is becoming one of the most valuable products of the Missouri section of the country. There are, at St. Louis, two large manufactories of bagging and |