The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

672 net tons, were in excess of the 1907 figures: Over three-fourths of these shipments were consigned to Chicago, Milwaukee, and Duluth-Superior. The shipments of soft coal, being chiefly for industrial purposes, present a less fa- vorable showing for the year, the total for 1908, 13,204,009 net tons, being con- siderably below the 1907 total of 15,428,- 309 net tons. This coal proceeding from Lake Erie ports comes into competition with the soft coal mined in the central western states carried by rail to con- suming points. One advantage the lake-borne coal has over the coal car- ried by rail is the low freight rates : charged on western shipments of this article by returning ore and grain-carry- ' ing vessels. The 1908 rates varied be- tween 30 and 40 cents per net ton and differed but little from the 1907 rates as distinct from grain rates which were decidedly lower than during the 1907 season. The above total for soft coal shipped does not include the quantity of fuel or bunker coal supplied to vessels for their own use. This quantity ag- gregated 1,477,902 net tons, compared with 2,017,231 net tons reported for the year 1907. The total just given com- prises quantities taken by vessels en- . gaged in domestic trade proper, and is exclusive of bunker coal supplied to vessels in the foreign trade, to tugs and other harbor vessels, The total quantity of fuel -coal supplied to all classes of vessels at United States lake ports during the 1908 season appears ; on page 619 of this summary. : The shipments of unclassed freight, . including mainly what is known as a package freight, 6,467,279 net tons, were about half a million tons below the to- tal of the 1907 season. Buffalo, Chicago, and Milwaukee were the principal ship- ping and receiving ports of miscellan- eous merchandise. : The total domestic receipts by lake during the year 1908 aggregated 58,909,- 345 net tons. About 73 per cent of the total merchandise tonnage received is credited to twelve ports. For the year 1908 the largest tonnage received is shown by Chicago, closely followed by Buffalo, which held first rank as a re- ceiving port during the year 1907. The shipments appear to be less concentrated, than 59 per cent of the total tonnage. Notwithstanding the considerable de- crease in ore, shipments for the past season Duluth shows by far the largest tonnage of domestic lake shipments, fol- lowed at some dista::ce by Superior- West Superior and Buffalo. It should be noted that the figures just given comprise only domestic shipments. The ageregate weight of exported goods 1s not reported to this office, and if com- the 12 ports in question shipping less - 'TAE. MarRINeE. REVIEW bined with the figures just given may alter somewhat the rank of various ports for which the data of merchan- dise tonnage are presented. The vessel movement on the great lakes during the year in question also shows a considerable decrease compared with .1907 figures. The total departures in the domestic trade numbered 65,624 vessels of 83,378,323 net tons, compared with 73,769 vessels of 99,166,409 net tons reported for the calendar year 1907. The largest vessel tonnage cleared in the domestic trade is shown for Duluth, Milwaukee, Chicago, Buf- falo, Superior, Cleveland, Two Harbors, Ludington, Detroit, Conneaut, Ashta- bula, and Toledo, ithe order of their importance, showing a tonnage of de- parting vessels in excess of 2,000,000 tons. The average size of the vessels on the great lakes was 1,271 tons, com- pared with 925 tons for the year 1902 and 1,100 tons for the year 1905.. | The freight movement through the canals..at Sault Ste. .Marie, Mich.;. and Ontario, Canada, during the 1908 season, 41,390,557 net tons, shows a relative de- crease of about 29 per cent, or about the same as the decrease for the .1908 domestic lake shipments. The greatest loss appears under the head of iron ore. The quantities of eastbound iron ore locked through the canals during the year, 24,627,588 net tons, differ some what from the Lake Superior ore ship- ments reported to this office, for the reason that the bureau does not take account of the Canadian, mainly Michi- "picoten ore shipments, nor of ore exports te Canada. There is a considerable difference between the volume of the eastbound grain move- ment feported by the canal authorities and that of the grain shipments from Lake Superior ports reported to this office, as the grain shipments dur- ing the year from the Canadian Lake Superior ports were as large as those from the Uni- ted States ports, while the shipmerts of wheat alone from Port Arthur and Fort William mainly were larger than those from American ports on Lake Su- perior. From reports especially pre- -pared for the use of this office by both the United States and Canadian Canal authorities it appears that during the past season 53,184,970 bu. of Canadian wheat and 14,609,844 bu. of other Ca- nadian grain, including flaxseed, passed through the canals. About 90 per cent of the westbound freight tonnage passing through the canals was made up of coal. The to- tals for the calendar year 1908, 1,384,- 743 net tons of hard coal and 8,517,717 net tons of soft coal, show a decline from the 1907 figures of 1,506,668 net almost : 2h tons of hard coal and 9,893,427 net. tons of soft coal. These figures are considerably higher than the respective figures of domestic receipts at Lake Su- perior ports, since the canal figures in- clude the westbound exports by lake of American coal from the lower lake ports to Canadian ports on Lake Superior, In agreement with the smaller. movement of freight through the canals, the num- ber and tonnage of vessels reported by the canal authorities shows a decrease from 20,437 vessels of 44,087,974 net tons for the 1907 season to 15,181 ves- sels of 31,091,730 net tons register for the season just passed. The average size of vessel using the canals, 2,048 tons, while considerably higher than the average obtained from the reports. of this office, 1,271 net tons, register, was, however, below the like average for the preceding year. This decrease is due to the smaller number of passages made by the larger sized ore boats during the past season, As a matter of fact, many of these boats began, their regular move- ments only during the middle of the summer, while in 1907 the movement started as soon as the ice had cleared from the approaches to the canals. A similar decrease is shown in the case. of the freight and vessel move- ment for the Detroit river. The mer; chandise traffic through this river for the past season aggregated 46,946,884 net tons, compared with 67,292,504 net tons reported for the 1907 season. A 30 per cent decrease of the river move- ment for the year corresponds to a 29 per cent decrease of the canal movement and a 28 per cent decrease of the total -- lake shipments. Of the total, 29,260,914 net tons represented a southbound and 17,685,970 net tons a northbound move- ment. As compared with the preced- ing year's totals, the southbound move- -- ment, comprising the ore traffic, shows by far the larger relative decrease. The vessel movement through the river for the year comprised 18,212 vessels of 36,290,089 net tons, compared with 23,721 vessels of 48,958,238 net tons for the 1907 season. oo Reports from San Francisco indicate -- that a private syndicate are contem- plating establishing a floating dry dock there. The dock at Hunter's Point, formerly owned by the San Francisco Dry Dock Co., has been acquired by Charles M. Schwab, who also owns the Union Iron Works. The keel of the new _ battleship Florida which is to be built by the government at the New York navy yard was laid this week. The Flori- da will be about 520 ft. long and of 21,825 tons displacement.