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THE MARINE RECORD. inland navigation, held at Paris, repeated mn “The Great Lakes of North America” to audience at the Board of Trade rooms, in Cleve- O., last week. r not another man in the entire lake district so Hy qualified to deal with the subjects contained of the valuable data contained in the paper is herewith: artier, the Frenchman, entered the mouth of the Lawrence in May, 1535. [here, his anchor went down in waters, that had ched the sea from the heart of the continent 2,500 niles distant. “India and ‘ Far Cathay’ had, for a century, kindled e imagination of all Rurope. Explorers from Britain, ance and Spain, and the Norsemen, earlier than they, ad sailed into the West, to reach those sunny lands of the East, so opulent in harvests, in gold and silver, and precious stones. They never found Cathay. The was barred by an unknown continent. "The Cabots, Columbus and Amerigo Vespucii landed _ on its fringing islands and coasted along its wilderness _ shores, but until Cartier, only De Soto, in search of the fountain of perpetual youth, penetrated to its interior, there to die and receive sepulture in the waters that, like those of the St, Lawrence, rolled to the sea from the central fountains of the continent. _ “The French, then—Champlain following Cartier—as- vending the St. Lawrence and breaking the silence of ie wilderness along the shores of the great North _ American Lakes, led the way to permanent occupation. ‘They first explored that vast interior domain, destined to be the home of thronging millions, and the seat of an opulence richer than all the dreams of Cathay. The missionary, the fur trader and the soldier carried the _ flag of France, through all the Lakes to the end of the chain in the far north-west; thence also down the Ohio, Missouri and the Mississippi, to the Spanish occupation at the Gulf, _ “France held these outposts of civilization on the line of the Saint Lawrence system, over two hundred years. She meant it to be, and called the new continent “New _ France.”’ By the treaty of Paris, however, in 1763, she ‘ceded and guranteed Canada with all its dependances’ to Great Britain. It is not fitting upon this oc- casion for me to discuss the consequences of this mo- mentous cession of half a continent; but it may not be amiss for us to observe the compensation of events which time hath wrought. If this territory had never been ceded by France, both ranks of this continental system would have been occupied by nations with republican institutions; as it is, both banks are occupied by nations speaking’ the same language, thus in every great his- torical loss, Destiny preserves some salvage for man- kind. : “The names and the influence, however, of these pioneers of faith and civilization, survived all change of rule and flag. The memories of Marquette, Duluth Joliet, Hennepin and La Salle have been perpetuated in the names of villages, cities and military posts of the Great Republic. For about one-half the distance across the continent the waters of the St. Lawrence system divide the Dominion from the Great Republic. The boundry line, beginning on the St. Lawrence in lati- tude 45°, passes through the middle of Lake Ontario, Erie, St. Clair, Huron, the St. Mary’s river and Lake Superior, to a point on its north shore, 124 miles east of Duluth and Superior, the western end of Lake Superior. Lake Michigan is wholly within the territory of the United States. “These great American lakes contain more than one half of the area of all the fresh water of a the globe. They make up the largest system of deep water inland navigation on the globe. The water area is 95,460 square miles. ‘The drain- age area is 150,000 square miles. No other inland waterway bears upon its bosom so vast a commerce, or touches, as this does, the vital interests of so many mil- lion of men. ‘The topographical relations of these con- nected waters are very remarkable. Lying, in general direction, east and west, between the 4ist and 47th par- allels, they penetrate from tide water on the St. Law- rence (and including the Erie canal), from tide water at New York, 1,400 miles into the heart of the continent. The head of Lake Superior and the St. Lawrence tide- water are on the northernmost parallel, Chicago and New York on the southern. The western extremity of the system, the head of Lake Superior, is 1,700 miles only from the waters of the Pacific. It is 2,384 miles from Belle Isle, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and 4,618 miles from Liverpool.’ The tonnage, he said, moving on the lakes originates in a very large propor- tion on the soil of the United States. Eight of the states of the Union border directly on them, while be- yond the head of Lake Superior are 600,000 square miles more of American territory, and north of this is another like empire under the British flag. The mineral treas- ures first drew the explorer up the St. Mary’s river, said Mr. Ely, Lake Superior being then unknown except by the missionary and the furtrader. Continuing, he sai “The descent in the St. Mary’s river—75 miles long— is 20 teet 4 inches; 18 feet 2 inches of this is at Sault. ‘Two feet two inches are distributed over the first 35 miles below the Sault. Lake Superior was opened by the completion of the canal and first lock in 1855, ‘This nee vessels drawing a maximum of 11% feet water. _ This was superseded in 1881 by the lock now in use—515 _ feet long, 80 feet wide and 17 feet water on the miter From that time this lock has with wonderful effi- e met the demands of a rapidly increasing tonnage. 1882, it passed 2,029,000 tons; in 1883, 2,267,000; in , a4 000; in 1885, 3,256,000; in 1886, 4,527,000; in 494,000; in 1888, 6,932,000; in 1889, 7,516,000; in 9,041,213 tons, the average season of navigation in latitude being about 220 days. The total number of passages in 1890 was 10,557. ‘The average number passing per day was 45.3. The average registered ton- nage per vessel in 1887 was 626.3; in 1891 it was 862.1. The annual average net tonnage for the last five years of the Suez canal—a world’s channel of commerce, and open every day in the year—was 6,983,167 tons. The annual average net tonnage of the lock and canal at Sault Ste. Marie for the same period—open only an average of 220 days in the year—was 6,821,062 tons, Congress has begun appropriations for the removal of obstructions at six different localities along the line. The estimates for this work are $3,394,835, and twenty feet of water will be secured at each of these localities contemporaneously with the completion of the works at the Sault in 1896, The registered tonnage of the lakes June 30, 1891, was 1,154,870 tons; 1,592 steam vessels, representing 736,751 tons, and 2,008 sail, 418,118 tons. The tonnage has more than doubled in the last five years, the increase being almost exclusively in steel steamships of 1,500 to 2,500 tons register. The ship building plants of the port of Cleveland alone launched 71,322 registered tons in the years 1889-1890. As a ship building locality, Cleveland has already become second only to the Clyde. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, 64 vessels, rep- resenting 83,223 net registered tons, mainly steel steam- ships, haye been added to the lake fleet, at a cost of $7,911,000, Of the total United States tonnage launched in 1889, 46 per cent. was on the Great Lakes, 41 per cent. on the Atlantic coast, 8 per cent. on the Pacific coast, 5 per cent. on the western rivers. “The capacity and power of some of our latest con- structions are illustrated by the sister steel steamships Maritana and Mariposa, just put afloat for the Minne- sota Steamship Co, The former was launched by the Chicago Ship Building Co. June 8, 1892, and the latter by the Globe Iron Works Co., Cleveland, June 16. The dimensions of these boats are: Length of keel, 330 feet: length over all, 350 feet; breadth of beam, 45 feet; depth of hold, 24% feet. The engines are triple expansion, 24, 39 and 63 inches, with 48 inches stroke, steam being furnished from three steel boilers 12 feet in diameter by 12% feet long. These ships are guaranteed to carry 3,000 gross tons on the present draft of water, 14% feet, and 4,000 gross tons on 17 feet. The 20 feet of water expected in 1896 will, of course, correspondingly in- crease the carrying capacity of these ships. “The work of this lake shipping is given approxi- mately by the United States census report of 1890. The freight movement in 1890 on all the lakes was estimated by that report at53,424,432 tons. The tonnage put afloat since then has increased this movement to 63,240,514 tons. Estimates only can be given, because at one point only on the lakes, Sault Ste. Marie, is there an official record made of tonnage movement. The movenient through the Detroit river alone in 1889 was estimated-at 36,203,586 tons. The grain movement alone in the sea- son of 1891, from the Lake Superior ports, Duluth and West Superior, and from Chicago, Milwaukee, Toledo and Detroit, was 197,165,208 bushels. ‘The average lake freight for the last three years on wheat from Chicago to Buffalo has been 1.73 cents per bushel. From Chicago to New York, by the lakesand the Erie canal, 6.87 cents. ‘The all rail rateaverage from Chicago to New York for the last three years has been 14.76 cents per bushel.” “We are now the largest producers of pig iron, Besse- mer steel ingots and Bessemer steel rails in the world. We consumed in the United States in 1890, 17,500,000 tons of iron ore. Of this, 1,246,830 tons were imported; 16,253,170 tons were home production. Of the home production, Lake Superior region furnished 9,003,701 tons. Out of the northwest, then, over these lakes, come more than one-half the ores for the vast iron and steel industries of our country. They are distributed, mainly, through Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York and Illinois.” About 100 mining locations are nowin operation in the Lake Superior districts. The Marquette district was opened in 1855; the Menominee in 1878; the Gogebic and the Minnesota in 1884. The total production since 1855 (1891 inclusive) has been 65,462,737 gross tons. The magnitude of the investments in Lake Superior ore mining and in its distribution will appear from the following: Capital in the mines in the four Lake Superior dis- tricts in 1889, as per United States census, $54,825,122; increase to July 1, 1892, $15,000,000; total, $69,825,122. Capital in docks and their equipment at Lake Supe- rior and Lake Michigan ports, built and used exclu- sively for shipping ore (official), $9,885,665. Capital employed exclusively in railroad transporta- tion of ore from mines to shipping ports on Lake Supe- rior and Lake Michigan (official), $27,014,594. Floating capital on the lakes, employed exclusively in ore transportation from upper to lower lake ports (es- timated), $29,933,107. Capital in docks, and in their equipment, for receiy- ing and forwarding ore exclusively, at Lake Erie ports, between Toledo and Buffalo, inclusive of both (official) $12,392,880. Capital employed exclusively in railroad transport- tion of ore, inland to mills and furnaces from Lake Erie ports (official), $26,343,617, total $175,394,385. Mr. Ely, after comparing the entries and clearances for the ports of London and Liverpool with those of New York, said that the estimate of the tonnage move- ment through the Detroit river in 1889 was at least 10,000,000 tons above the total entries and clearances in the foreign trade at the seaports of the United States, and 3,000,000 tons above the combined foreign and coast- wise tonnage of the ports of London and Liverpool. He estimated the value of American shipping now afloat on these waters at $68,925,449, and said that the popula- tion on the Great Lakes in ten years had increased 85 per cent. He gave figures of four cities on Lake Supe- rior, five on Lakes Huron and St. Clair, twelve on Lake Michigan and seven on Lake Erie, showing a popula- tion in 1880 of 1,342,019, and in 1890 of 2,546,983. “Strange as it may seem, during several years past, successive attempts have been made in the interest of railroads converging to the Detroit river to secure from Congress bridge franchises at that point of the concen- trated traffic of the entire water system. Tothe Detroit river there is no alternative channel. Through that passage—2,600 feet wide only, and a much Téss width actually available for deep draft navigation—sweeps the floating tonnage of a continent. Another question is the extension of deep water navigation eastward, from the foot of Lake Erie, by way of the Hirdson river to the ocean at New York. The logical sequence of twenty feet of water through the lakes west of Ontario is an outlet, of equal depth, eastward to the Atlantic. The St. Lawrence route involves a shorter season of navigation. It terminates at no center of commercial exchanges. Its improvements now in progress contem- plate fourteen feet of water only. It is obvious that this will never meet the demands of American com- merce.’’ The deep water extension to the ocean, then, must be through American territory. The agency of the Erie canal, with its successive enlargements. during the last sixty years, in reducing the cost of transportation is in- calculable, but a ship channel to the Hudson, either on the line of the Erie canal or by way of Niagara Falls and Lake Ontario, is now required. The Detroit Deep Waterways convention of December, 1891, appealed suc- cessfully to Congress for a survey of routes, and an ap- propriation for this purpose has been reported. The cost of this work, by whatever route, will be im- mense, but its relations are so yital that the expendi- ture must and will be made. Then, without breaking bulk, our lake shipping will pass out over all oceans and share the world’s commerce with the strongest. ‘ At the conclusion of Mr. Ely’s excellent paper,.a unanimous vote of thanks was passed, and it was. also resolved to request the Board of Trade to print the ad- dress in pamphlet form, seta 4 a - LICENSES SUSPENDED. The local inspectors at Marquette, Mich., included in the HKighth District, have suspended the licenses of pilots Rdwin Allie, Jessie Goodwin and John Parker for sixty days for violating the United States law requiring certain lights to be carried by all kinds of craft on navigable waters between the hours of stinset and sunrise. The inspectors have also reported their tugs to the United States district attorney, for prosecu- tion. ‘The action is the outcome of official inquiry into the drowning of George Cronmiller, near Marquette, on September 27, a small boat containing Cronmiller hay- ing been struck by a tug running without a light. Goy- ernment officials have failed to establish the identity of the tug which ran down Cronmiller. re oe ESTIMATES FOR LIGHT-HOUSES. —__ The Lighthouse Board has transmitted to the Secre- tary of the Treasury estimates of appropriations for the support and improyement of the lighthouse estab- lishment during the next fiscal year. ‘The regular esti- mates include the following items: Supplies of light- houses, $408,000; repairs of lighthouses, $710,427; salar- ies of keepers of lighthouses, $680,000; expenses of light vessels, $300,000; expenses of buoyage, $425,000; ex- penses of fog signals, $110,775; inspecting lights, $5,000; lighting of rivers, $350,000; survey of lighthouse sites, $1,000. et NOTES. NaturAL phenomena—A dandy on shore is disgusting to many ; but a swell at sea is liable to sicken everybody. A FEW days ago several bids were opened at the United States Engineers’ office, at Duluth, for the im- provement of Marquette Harbor. There was a differ- ence of $16,520 in the bids. ‘That of Powell & Mitchell was the lowest, at $65,381. The highest bid was of the Wisconsin Dredge Co., of Manitowoc, at $81,910. WE note that the following vessels have been classed or rated during the last week by the American Ship- masters’ Association in the Record of American and Foreign Shipping: American barge C. R. R. of N. J. No. 9, Amer- ican schooner Mary 5. Nason, American ship Wm. H. Conner, British half brigs Edward E. Hutchings and Alice. 43 ‘Tur Carnegie Works, in Pennsylvania, have informed the Navy Department that they cannot name the time of delivery of the vertical plates to conrplete the turrets of the coast defence vessel Monteray, owing to the con- tinued effects of the Homestead strike. Nothing is now lacking for the completion of that vessel but these plates. Captain Epwarp MAGuIRE#, of the United States Corps of Engineers, who had been stationed in Phila- delphia for some time as engineer of the Fourth Light- house district, died at his residence in that city, of heart failure, last week. The body was taken for interment to Detroit, where the Captain had made his home. _ Wuix fishing, a man suddenly fell into the water, A fellow fisherman of benevolent aspect promptly helped him out, laid him on his back, and then began to scratch his head in a puzzled manner. ‘What’s the matter?’ asked the bystanders. ‘‘Why don’t you revive him?” ‘There are sixteen rules to revive drowned per: said the benevolent man, “and I know ’em all; bi can’t call to mind which comes first.” At this point the — rescued man opened his eyes, and said faintly, ‘Is th anything about giving brandy in the rules?” ‘ ‘Then never mind the other fifteen.” < al os