Statement of tonnage entering and departing from northern and southern States. Total 15, 504 25, 786 31, 183 8,664 973,681 1,055, 446 2,029, 127 1,993, 960 2,031,341 4,025, 301 1,996, 178 2, 289, 309 2, 353, 495 4,642, 804 617,503 * Decrease, INLAND WATER-ROUTES. The following tables are submitted in reference to the inland waterroutes, and the character and value of their trade, so far as they could be obtained. Application was made to persons in each of the principal cities for information relating to their inland trade, which was unsuccessful. It is mentioned with the hope that the principal commercial cities on the Atlantic and in the interior will promptly take measures to have this matter receive proper attention. It is due to the interests of the cities, to the inland trade, and to the railroad interest, that all the information relating to routes, facility of transportation, expense, distance, &c., should be correctly prepared and promptly given to the public in annual statements. It is necessary to state again, if any complaints are made of interesting local points being unnoticed in this report, the fault is not with the undersigned, but is chargeable to the indifference of those to whom repeated applications were made for the requisite data. The appended statements have been compiled from official and authentic returns, exhibiting the estimated value of the tonnage of the leading inland water-routes which connect the tide-waters of the Atlantic with those of the Gulf of Mexico. There are at the present time four great routes to which the interior trade of the country has been chiefly confined-the St. Lawrence, the Erie canal, the Pennsylvania improvements, and the Mississippi river and its tributaries. All these routes are mutually connected by an interior network of railroads and canals, and merchandise may be forwarded from the respective termini of each, upon tidewater, to any part of the country, (and by water except upon the Pennsylvania line,) and may be passed with convenience from one to the other. There are important works recently completed, and others in progress, designed to occupy a similar relation to this trade to those already described; but these have too recently come into operation to allow their results to be compared with the above-named. None of the former have passed into the great interior basin of the country save the Georgia line, which is yet wanting in those connexions which are necessary to secure to it the trade of an extensive range of country. When completed, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad will add another to what may be termed the national lines, and others equally extensive, and perhaps equally important, will soon follow. Up to the present time, consequently, the routes of commerce be tween the interior and the seaboard have been those first described. We have, however, unfortunately, accurate and satisfactory returns of the quantity and value upon one route only-the Erie canal. The excellent system prevailing upon that work gives, in great detail, every fact of interest in reference to the source whence received, tonnage, value, character, and direction of all property passing over it. Upon the St. Lawrence canals, values are not given in the reports of the Board of Works of Canada; and these have been estimated to agree, as nearly as possible, with the returned values of the same articles upon the Erie canal. The tables showing the values of produce received at New Orleans from the interior are compiled from the annual statements which |