The annexed table exhibits the total valuation of property from the interior during the last eleven years. Statement showing the value of exports and imports at New Orleans, annually, from 1834 to 1851 inclusive. Statement of the receipts on account of duties collected at New Orleans from 1835 to the 30th of June, 1852, inclusive. No. 10.-Statement exhibiting the number of American and foreign vessels, and also their tonnage, employed in foreign trade in the district of New Orleans, which entered and cleared annually from 1826 to 1851, inclusive. MOBILE, ALABAMA. Mobile is situated on a bay and river, bearing the same name, just at the point where the latter enters the former, and about thirty miles from the entrance of the bay into the Gulf of Mexico. It is in latitude 30° 40' north, and longitude SS° 21' west. The city is on the west side of the river, distant from Pensacola, Florida, 55 miles; from New Orleans 160 miles, from Tuscaloosa 217 miles, and from Washington 1,013 miles. It had a population in 1830 of 3,194 persons; in 1840, of 12,672; and in 1850, of 20,513: showing, from 1830 to 1840, a duplication about once in five years, and from 1840 to 1850, a rate of duplication once in about sixteen years. About forty miles above the city, Mobile river is formed by the junction of the waters of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers. These latter are both navigable for steamers, and a portion of the distance for vessels. Steam navigation on the Tombigbee extends to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Columbus, Missis sippi. Vessels requiring five or six feet draught of water can ascend to St. Stephens, about ninety miles from the bay. The Alabama river is navigable by steamers to Montgomery, three hundred miles; and by vessels drawing five to six feet, one hundred miles, to Claiborne. Mobile bay is about thirty miles in length, with an average breadth of twelve miles. The principal channel from the gulf has a depth of eighteen feet water at low tide, and on the upper bar, near the mouth of the river, there is about eleven feet at low tide; and eighteen to nineteen feet at high water. Owing to this fact, vessels of heavy draught, when laden, have to proceed to sea at high tide. The tonnage registered and enrolled at this port, in 1840, was 17,243; in 1841, it was 15,714; in 1846, 22,537; and in 1851, it was 27,327 tons. The tonnage entered and cleared from and to foreign ports in those years was as follows: The region of country around Mobile, and flanking Mobile river and its various affluents, possesses a soil of the most fertile character, which, being reduced to a high state of culture, must look to Mobile as the depot for the shipment of surplus products, as well as the entrepôt for all foreign supplies, or necessaries not produced in that section. The face of the country is level, and remarkably adapted to the cheap contsruction of railways. It will be seen by reference to page 337 of this report, that this feature in the topography of the country has not been overlooked, and that several very important lines of railway are already under contract, and in progress toward completion, which must largely increase the commerce of Mobile, not only with the surrounding coun try, but with foreign ports. The following statistics of the trade and commerce of the port during several years past, compiled from various authentic sources, will show, that with only some five or six hundred miles of river navigation, by which to reach the interior, her business has reached a very enviable position, both in imports and exports. It should be remembered, moreover, that Alabama is, comparatively, a new State, and more sparsely settled than many others, all parts of which are more directly accessible by natural channels. Mobile can hardly be said to have commenced her growth till since 1830, since which period she has grown in a more rapid ratio than any other southern city. The agricultural resources of the State of Alabama are supposed to be second to those of hardly any other for the production of the staple articles of that climate; and when, three years hence, nearly every portion of the State will become directly connected with Mobile by the completion of her system of railways, it may well be expected that the growth of that city will increase beyond all previous periods of her history. Statement showing the exports and destination of cotton from the port of Mobile during the last ten years ending August 31. This statement exhibits very little evidence of an extension of the area cultivated during the series of years presented, which is a corroboration of the necessity for easy communication with a market. After the opening of the railways, no doubt a rapid gradual increase in the exports of cotton will be observed. Besides cotton, a large quantity of staves, lumber, and naval stores are shipped from Mobile seaward. The business in staves and lumber, during the last three years, was as follows: |