The southern Michigan and northern Indiana railway terminates both at Toledo, Ohio, and at Monroe, Michigan, on the lakes, and runs westward, through the southern counties of Michigan and the northern counties of Indiana, to Chicago, at the head of Lake Michigan, on the eastern border of Illinois. This road passes through some of the most fertile portions of these States, and, being recently completed through its entire length, may be confidently looked to as sure to add greatly to the commerce of the lakes at its termini.

Farther to the northward, on the Detroit river, the central Michigan railway communicates across the peninsula, from the city of Detroit, with New Buffalo and the lake; and, having been open some years, has done more to develop the matchless resources of this State, and to urge it forward to its present commanding position, than any one other route. Cities, villages, and large flouring mills are springing into existence everywhere along the line of this road, depending upon it as the avenue of their business to the lakes.

The Pontiac railway and many plank roads connect various other points of the interior, and are vastly beneficial to the commerce of the lakes.

Following the line of the lakes westward, Lake Huron may be passed over, as presenting no internal improvements worthy of note. One of the principal of those which are already projected, is the extension of the Pontiac railroad to Saginaw, touching at a point on the St. Clair river, opposite to Sarnia, Canada West, where it is destined to communicate with a branch of the great western railway from Hamilton, on Lake Ontario, to Lake Huron. Another road is also projected in Canada, from Toronto, across the peninsula, by Lake Simcoe, to Penetanguishine, on the great Georgian bay, which will shorten the route to the Sault Ste. Marie, by many hundred miles, and, should the much demanded and long proposed ship canal around the Sault be now at last effected, will tend more largely than any other improvement to develop and bring to a market the incalculable mineral resources of Lake Superior.

Southward of Lake Superior, and bordering on the western shore of Lake Michigan, lies the upper or northern peninsula of Michigan, and the northern portion of Wisconsin, little known as yet, except to lumbermen, trappers, traders and voyageurs, and naturally hitherto the theatre of uo internal improvements tributary to the commerce of the lakes.

Passing southward, however, to Green bay, and its sources in the interior of Wisconsin, there are lately completed some improvements in the internal navigation of that State, which are, perhaps, of more importance to the future growth of the lake commerce than any yet perfected in any part of the State. These are the works on the Fox river, and the canal connecting the waters of that stream with the Wisconsin, which opens the steam navigation of the lakes to river craft, and vice versa, although it is scarcely probable that the same vessels which navigate the lakes will pass through the rivers. This, in fact, is by no means necessary to the success of the project, the importance of which is found in the fact, that by it the steam route from the Atlantic to the upper valley of the Mississippi is incredibly shortened; and thereby

the whole trade, springing into existence throughout that vast upper country, is, in a great degree, rendered tributary to the lakes.

The junction of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers is, in fact, by this route brought nearer to the lakes than to St. Louis; and the transportation of goods being by an uninterrupted line of steamboat navigation throughout the whole chain of lakes and across the State of Wisconsin, the trade to be one day transacted by this route will be

enormous.

The richness of the soil of Wisconsin in the valleys of the rivers, and on the borders of Lake Winnebago, is rarely surpassed or equalled, and towns containing from one to three thousand inhabitants are everywhere springing into existence through her territories, which are probably destined to become, in a few years, great commercial cities.

Southward of this route there are no very important channels of communication tributary to the lakes until we reach Chicago, where Lake Michigan is connected with the Illinois river by a canal of 100 miles in length, opening to that lake the vast wealth and traffic of the richest corn valley in the known world.

Railroads are also projected from Milwaukie, one of which is completed some forty miles to the westward, which is destined to extend to the Mississippi. There are also plank roads from many points, more or less useful as avenues of commerce to the lakes: at present, however, the only communication between the northern and southern routes is by the Illinois and Michigan canal. This was originally intended to be a ship canal, connecting Chicago with Peru, on the Illinois river, but was only constructed equal to the admission of ordinary canal boats, which can, on reaching the latter point, be towed by steam down the river to St. Louis, and return thence laden with sugar, hemp, tobacco, flour or grain, and thence by horse power to Chicago.

Whether the original plan of this canal will ever be carried out, is at best very problematical, since there are obstacles in the periodical shallowness of the waters of the Illinois which would frustrate the only object of the improvement, to wit, the through-navigation of the works by lake craft.

This canal was opened in May, 1848, and the first section of the Chicago and Galena railroad in March, 1849. In 1847, the year previous to the opening of the canal, the real estate and personal property in Cook county, of which Chicago is the capital, was valued at $6,189,385, and the State tax was $18,162. In the year following, when the canal had been one season in operation, the valuation rose to $6,986,000, and the State tax to $25,848. In 1851 this valuation had risen yet farther to the sum of $9,431,826, and the State tax to $56,937. In 1840 the population of Chicago was 4,479, and the valuation of property not far from $250,000; while in 1851 the population was about 36,000, and the assessed valuation of real and personal property was $8,562,717. In 1847 the population, according to the city census, was 16,859; in 1848 it was 20,023; in 1849, 23,047; and in 1850, according to the United States census, 29,963; having increased twice more rapidly than before, since the completion of the canal. The population of Chicago at this time-August, 1852-is nearly, if not quite, 40,000.

In regard to this train of argument, and to this view of the effect of

internal improvements on the growth of the West, and on the commercial condition of that portion of the country, it will be well to follow up the same train of examination in relation to the growth of certain points to the east of the great lakes, such as Buffalo, New York, Oswego, Boston, and other cities directly affected by the same commerce, through the internal channels of communication in New York and Massachu

setts.

In 1800, the city of New York, with its suburbs, had a population 63,000—in 1850, of...

of Boston

38,000

Philadelphia city and co. 73,000

Cincinnati.

Buffalo...

Oswego

Albany

Chicago.

66

66

700,000

212,000

450000

115,436

42,260

12,205

50,763

29,963

77,860

St. Louis..

Hence it appears, that between the years 1800 and 1850 the population of New York and its suburbs doubled itself once in every 16 years; Boston, once in every 251; Philadelphia, in every 20; Cincinnati, in every 63; Albany, in every 15; St. Louis, in every 9 years.

This covers a term of half a century; but from 1810 to 1850, a period of forty years, the population of New York doubled itself once in every 15 years; Philadelphia, in 183; Boston, in 183; Albany, in 16; Cincinnati, in 7; St. Louis, in 9; Buffalo, in 8, and Detroit, in 81.

From 1820 to 1850, a period of thirty years, the population of New York doubled once in 13 years; Philadelphia, in 16; Boston, 15; Albany, 15; Cincinnati, 7; St. Louis, 7; Buffalo, 6; Detroit, 8.

du

From 1830 to 1850, a period of twenty years, the term of duplication-this being the first census taken after the opening of the Erie canal, but before its influence had been much felt on the seaboard, owing to the non-completion of the Ohio and lateral canals-was, in New York, 15 years; Philadelphia, 173; Boston, 20; Albany, 20; Cincinnati, 8; St. Louis, 5; Buffalo, 8; Detroit, 6; Cleveland, 5; and Sandusky, 5. And from 1840 to 1850-a period of ten years, ring which nearly the whole western population had become exporters by means of the Ohio, New York, and Philadelphia canals, and the various lines of railway-the effect of these influences on the period of duplication in the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, has been truly astonishing; but the same influence, reacting and reflected from the East upon the western cities is yet more wonderful.

According to the ratio of their increase during these ten years, New York would double her population in 12 years; Boston, in 12; Philadelphia, in 123; Baltimore, in 131; Albany, in 161; Cincinnati, in 6; St. Louis, in 4; Buffalo, in 8; Detroit, in 9; Cleveland, 64; Sandusky, 5; Chicago, 4; Milwaukie, 34; Toledo, 6; Oswego, 8.

Hence it appears, that every new improvement is bound by inevitable laws to pay its tribute to some great channel of internal commerce. The existence of such a channel has indirectly created the

necessity for the improvement; and the same law which called it into existence as necessarily requires it, by a reactionary impulse, to indemnify its creator.

Before the present century shall have passed away, the United States will undoubtedly present to the world a spectacle unequalled in past history. More than fifty millions of republican freemen, all equal citizens of a confederacy of independent States, united by congenial sympathies and hopes; by a devotion to the principles of political and religious freedom, and of self-government; bound together by a common language and harmonious laws, and by a sacred compact of union, w also be firmly cemented with one another by indissoluble bonds of mutual dependence and common interests. The remote sections of the confederacy will be made near neighbors by means of canals. Railroads will chain all the several parts each to each; the whole people from the Pacific to the North Atlantic ocean, from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, cultivating the arts of peace and science, and incited by a genuine rivalry for the accomplishinent of the real mission of the American people.

THE LAKE DISTRICTS,

WITH A DESCRIPTION OF EACH;

STATISTICAL STATEMENTS OF THE CANADIAN AND DOMESTIC TRADE, AND A GENERAL SUMMARY.

No. 1.-DISTRICT OF VERMONT.

Port of entry, Burlington; latitude 44° 27', longitude 73° 10′; population in 1830, 3,525; in 1840, 4,271; in 1850, 6,110.

This, which is the easternmost of all the lake districts, comprises the whole eastern shore of Lake Champlain, from its southern extremity at Whitehall to its northern termination, excepting only a few miles at the head of Missisquoi bay, which fall within the Canadian line; and embraces all those portions of the State of Vermont which are subject to custom-house regulations.

Lake Champlain is about one hundred and five miles in length, and varies in breadth from one to fifteen miles; it contains several islands, principally toward the upper end, of which the largest are North and South Hero, and La Motte island; and, in addition to all the waters of Lake George, its principal affluent, the outlet of which enters it at Ticonderoga, receives nine considerable streams: the Otter creek, the Onion river, the Lamoile, and the Missisquoi, from Vermont to the north and eastward; the Chazy, the Saranac, the Sable, and Boquet rivers, on the west, and Wood creek on the south, from the State of New York. It discharges its own waters into the St. Lawrence by the Sorel or Richelieu river, in a northeasterly course; the navigation of which has been improved by the works of the Chambly (Canadian) canal, so as to afford an easy communication for large vessels to the

St. Lawrence, and thereby to the great lakes. From its southern extremity it is connected by the Champlain canal with the Mohawk river and the Erie canal, at the village of Waterford, where the united works enter the Hudson, and thus form a perfect chain of inland navigation from the lakes of the far northwest to the Atlantic seaboard. The whole length of the Champlain canal, including about seventeen miles of improved natural navigation on Wood creek and the Hudson river, is about sixty-four miles. It is forty feet wide on the surface, twenty-eight at the bottom, and four deep. The amount of lockage is eighty-four feet. On account of this artificial line of intercommunication, Lake Champlain is included, not improperly, in the great chain of American lakes; although, to speak strictly, it is not one of them, having no natural outlet directly into them, and so far from being the recipient of any of their waters, serving, like them, itself as a feeder to the St. Lawrence.

The lake is bordered on its eastern shore by lands composing this district, with a coast line of considerably more than a hundred miles, including its many deep, irregular bays and inlets, of great productiveness and fertility, especially adapted to grazing and dairy farms, and to the cultivation of the northern fruits. Its western shores are, for the most part, high, wild, and barren, soon rising into the vast and almost inaccessible ridges of the Adirondack mountains, lying within the counties of Hamilton, Herkimer, and Essex, in New York, a region the wildest and most rugged, the least adapted to cultivation or the residence of man, of any to the eastward of the great American desert; and still the haunt of the deer, the moose, the cariboo, the otter and the beaver, the wolf, the panther, and the loup-cervier, which still abound in this fastness of rock, river, lake, and forest, almost within sound of great and populous cities.

By its means of communication with the St. Lawrence, and its outlet to the Hudson, this lake has become the channel of a large and important trade with Canada, especially in lumber, employing nearly two hundred thousand tons of craft and shipping, counting the aggregate of entries and clearances, and giving occupation, to speak in round numbers, to twelve thousand men.

The opening of the Ogdensburg and Vermont railroads, connecting New York and Boston more directly with the lakes, has, it is probable, in some degree affected this trade; at least, the returns of 1851 exhibit a falling off in the Canadian trade of Lake Champlain. It does not, however, appear that the opening of new channels of trade is wont usually to affect the interests of those already existing, but, on the contrary, by increasing facilities and consequently augmenting demands, adds to the liveliness and vigor of business, and is ultimately beneficial to all. Hence, there appears no just cause for apprehending any permanent decrease or deterioration of the shipping interests, connected with Lake Champlain.

Burlington, the port of entry of this district, is the largest town in the State of Vermont, containing about ten thousand inhabitants. It is beautifully situated on a long, regular slope of the eastern shore, ascending gradually from the head of Burlington bay, on the southern side of