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26 MARINE REVIEW. [May 17, A DISCLAIMER FROM BUFFALO. LAKE FREIGHT SITUATION SAID TO BE BETTER THAN IT WAS A MONTH AGO-- MILES OF IOE IN THE MIDDLE OF MAY. Buffalo, May 16.--As one of our Buffalo dailies has been incautious enough to copy a wail from Chicago to the effect that the lake trade is flattening out and that the bottom is already as good as gone, it may be well to put in a disclaimer at once and I will do so by saying with all possible emphasis that as far as this end of the lake trade is con- cerned there is much less fear of disaster than there was a month ago and that practically every vessel owner or broker here feels that the worst is as good as over. Freights in all directions are strong, unless it be lumber, which has really been the cause of all the weakness, so far as this port is concerned. It is, of course, confessed that the turn of the freight market has been a great disappointment and it may be said also that with one view of the situation what is lost is lost, but the vessel interest is so con- fident of the future that there is everywhere a prediction that a stand- still now means a freight so much better in the last half of the season. Some of the lumbermen frankly express much the same opinion, but at the same time they say that the eastern lumber trade is not anticipating its wants to the extent of a single board, and so long as there is where all the difficulty comes in they have nothing to do but to imitate the tactics of their customers. If they have to pay $4 again in the fall they will do it. The fight over lumber rates is not over, but vessel owners are stand- ing firm and say that there is indication of an improvement, though some of the dealers are still trying to get tonnage at $1.50 from Georgian bay on pine and $2 from the Straits on hardwood. Other freights have done better by us. Up to Monday night this port had handled 20,212,340 bushels of all grain, including flaxseed, but not including the 987,040 bushels that the present management found afloat when it took hold. Ore is coming in fairly well. It must be understood that Buffalo, with- out its 'big steel works yet in operation, is now an ore-handling center of the first class, having passed Erie last season, and stands fourth on the list, with a trifle more than a tenth of the Lake Erie ore to its credit. We have had all sorts of luck with the ice this season. As a rule it has been as mild and forbearing with us as possible and has sunk but one vessel, the schooner Howland, while the wet grain brought in may be summed pretty nearly up in brief by mentioning the 29,000 bushels on the Yale and about 17,000 bushels on the steamers Grover and Caledonia together. Some sort of permanent record ought to be made, however, of the fact that at the middle of May there was still several miles of ice off this harbor, with grounded "clampers" in many places so solid that a man could walk about on them as securely as on land. Inside of ten days of that time a vessel made its way a half mile-or so through this sort of ice and then failed to get any further. Not being able to turn about either, there was ncthing to do but back out through the long groove that she had plowed in the ice. It was declared by a vessel owner at the middle of May that a stiff southeaster would easily close the har- bor with ice. But the wind has so far stcod on its neutrality and refused to drive the ice up or down, so, as the sun has been weak, there was nothing for the 100 miles or so of ice that lay at the harbor entrance when navigation opened but to make its escape down the Niagara and add to the picturesqueness of the Falls. : This port has not consented to be a strike center, as was feared, though the long fight at the Union Dry Dock Co.'s Works goes on and there may be a word from the package freight handlers yet. But the steady hand and good sense displayed on both sides in the arrangement with the scoopers had its moral effect, and we are safe, to all appearance. NORTH ATLANTIC SQUADRON'S SUMMER CRUISE. Admiral Farquhar, commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Squad- ron, called at the navy department last week and had a conference with Secretary Long and Admiral Crowninshield respecting the summer movements of the squadron. The admiral's flagship, the New York, in company with the Texas, is now lying in Hampton Roads. It was arranged that upon leaving Hampton Roads the ships should proceed to New York, arriving there in time to give the annual salute off Grant's tomb, in Riverside Park, May 30. After some fitting out at the navy vard at New York, the New York and Texas will proceed to Newport, R. I., where the Kearsarge will join them, and the three ships, with the torpedo flotilla, will work out some of the plans of the naval war college, which will be in session at the time at Newport. This work will be undertaken about June 1. It will be concluded in time to enable the squadron to reach Boston before June 17 to take part in the celebration of the arniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill. The ships will then proceed tc Portsmouth, N. H., where the citizens have arranged a cele- bration on August 6, during which they will present to the battleship Kearsarge a bronze tablet, the gift of New Hampshire. The project in- cludes the presentation of a similar tablet to the Kearsarge's sister ship, Alabama, and the governor of Alabama will be invited to receive the tablet as a mark of the complete extinguishment of sectional feeling. SUEZ CANAL STATISTICS. United States Consul General Hunter, at Cairo, Egypt, sends to the state department statistics cf the Suez canal traffic in 1899, which show that 3,480 steamers of 9,893,022 tons aggregate passed through the canal last year, as compared with a total of 2,464 vessels and 9,186,912 tons in 1898. Of the vessels passing through in 1899 2,207 of an aggregate ton- nage of 6,628,767 tons were British, 373 of 1,051,149 tons were German, 223 of 591,142 tons were Trench, 205 of 438,175 tons Dutch, and 102 of 255,381 tons Austrian. 'Twenty steamers of an aggregate tonnage of 64,801 flew the flag of the United States. W aa aiid 7 FOR SHIP YARDS, BOIL Hm) 7S) Belt, Steam or Electric ---- ER SHOPS, Etc. MANUFACTURED BY ALLSTATTER CO., HamiLtTon, Ouio.