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Up and Down the Great Lakes Bulk Freight Declines —Lake Levels — Ore Shipments Less — American & Canadian Grain—Coal Movement—lllinois Waterway States and Canadian locks at Sauul Ste. Marie during October, 1934, was 5,005,676 tons as com- pared with 7,154,293 tons in October, 1933, a decrease of 2,148,617 tons. The ehief factors in reducing the tonnage were light shipments of wheat and iron ore, Wheat decreased from 28,- 910,342 bushels to 22,169,093 bush- els and iron ore from 4,782,866 tons to 2,688,254 tons. Bituminous coal shipments increased from 888,651 tons to 1,157,853 tons, but anthracite coal decreased from 56,664 tons to 7654 tons. Shipments through the Welland canal during October this year were 1,330,721 tons, as against 1,352,644 tons for October, 1933. Wheat was lighter by 198,244 tons, or 6,608,133 bushels; corn by 38,198 tons and oats by 17,534 tons. Rye shipments in- ereased by 37,267 tons, all of it be- ing upbound; cement, brick and lime, by 16,323 tons; iron and steel by 21,818 tons; gasoline by 32,460 tons; pulpwood by 17,727 tons and bitu- minous coal by 99,889 tons. F'rom the opening of navigation on April 17 to October 31 this year, total traf- fic through the Welland ship canal amounted to 7,885,651 tons as against 7,993,679 tons in 1938. Freight using the St. Lawrence eanals during October this year was lighter than in October, 1933, by 4571 tons, decreasing from 1,040,854 to 1:036,283 tons,. The large de- ereases were: Wheat, 75,586 tons; pulpwood, 24,173 tons; paper, 7983 tons; oats, 6806 tons; and anthracite coal, 5700 tons. Barley shipments increased over 1933 by 24,581 tons; rye by 37,742 tons; bituminous coal by 28,093 tons and petroleum and other-oils by 11,049 tons. For the season up to the end of October, 5,- 737,802 tons of freight transited the canals, as against 6,170,762 tons for the same period in 1933. T see traffic through the United Ore Shipments Decrease Shipments of ore from upper lake ports during October this yeéar amounted to 2,640,823 tons as com- pared with 4,542,510 tons for the month of October, 1933. This repre- sents a decrease of 41.86 per cent. For the season up to Nov. 1, 1934, a total of 21,765,409 tons of ore were shipped from upper lake ports, as compared with 20,842,083 tons for 32 the same period last year. Balance of ore on docks at Lake Erie ports on Nov. 1, 1934, was 5,284,816 tons, as compared with 5,335,885 tons for the same date last year. Ore shipments by rail from Lake Erie ports to furnaces during October amounted to 1,103,091 tons, making a total of 10,797,599 tons for the sea- son up to Nov. 1, as compared with a total shipment of 11,445,387 tons for the same period in 19338. October Lake Levels The United States Lake survey re- ports the following monthly mean stages of the Great Lakes for the month of October, 1934, determined from daily readings of staff gages: Feet above Lakes mean sea level SUPEMOR es oo eee 602.98 Michigan-Huron .......... 577.70 St. Clana eee 572.93 ED as Sheet ape nS PS ASO ee 569.87 OMCATIOR soca ace anes ence 243.09 Lake Superior was 0.11 foot high- er than in September and it was 0.13 foot above the October stage of a year ago. Lakes Michigan-Huron were 0.20 foot lower than in September and they were 0.20 foot below the Oc- tober stage of a year ago, 1.42 feet below the average stage of October of the last ten years. Lake Erie was 0.28 foot lower than in September and it was 0.72 foot be- low the October stage of a year ago, 1.59 feet below the average stage of October of the last ten years. Lake Ontario was 0.23 foot lower than in September and it was 0.76 foot below the October stage of a year ago, 2.04 feet below the aver- age stage of October of the last ten years. The Illinois Waterway Shipments by the Federal Barge line of the Inland Waterways Corp. on the Illinois waterway were twice as heavy this year as in 1933, ac- cording to a bulletin published by the traffic department at Peoria, Ill. The increase was made despite low water conditions throughout the sea- son. Last year the total tonnage car- ried was 275,000 tons. The water- way was not open into Chicago until June, 1933, consequently 1934 is the first full year of operation. Chicago MARINE REVIEw—December, 1934 tonnage has been increasing steadily. Twe fleets carrying coal and oil have been operating steadily all season in addition to the service of the Federal Barge line. The movement of grain from the Illinois valley has increased heavily. Sand and gravel, owing to the fact that one company which operated on the Illinois waterway in 1933 trans- ferred much of its activity this sea- son to the upper Mississippi, will show a small decrease. The last northbound tow of the Federal Barge line for the season left New Orleans early in November. American Grain Shipments Lake shipments of grain from Chi- cago during October included 2,785,- 000 bushels of corn, 1,745.000 bushels of wheat and 215,000 bar- rels of flour. This brought total shipments from the opening of navi- gation to Nov. 1 to 22,498,000 bush- els of corn, 10,386,000 bushels of wheat, 1,849,000 bushels of oats, 319,000 bushels of rye and 947,000 bushels of flour. Grain imports at Chicago from July 1 to Nov. 1 included 4,918,000 bush- els of rye and 890,000 bushels of oats. One cargo of 300,000 bushels of oats was received from Argentina for shipment to Cedar Rapids, Ia. Rye was received from Canada, Po- land and Russia. More than 36,000,000 bushels of grain was moved from Duluth from the opening of lake navigation to Nov. 1. Wheat lead with shipments of 17,914,669 bushels, nearly all of which went to Buffalo. Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee re- ceived less than 2,000,000 bushels. Oats ranked second in traffic with 7,534,990 busheles, the bulk going to Buffalo and Toledo. Corn shipments totaled 5,992,506 bushels, while the movement of barley was 3,616,942 bushels, rye 1,189,198 bushels and flax 198,850 bushels. The passenger service between De- troit and Cleveland, operated by the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co., closed for the season with the sgail- ing for Detroit on Nov. 10. The Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., ply- ing between Buffalo and Cleveland, closed its passenger service on Oct. 13. Both companies are operating a freight service.