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220 AROUND THE LAKES." KE COMMERCE. FACTS ON LA Some interesting facts are gleaned from the report on lake commerce recently given out by S. G. Brock, statistician of the treasury department. The value of commerce passing the Sault canal has increased during the past ten years from $28,000,000 to $128,000,000. The area of the great lakes is 270,000 square miles, bordering on eight states, with 26,000,000 population. On the lakes are six cities having a population exceeding 100,000. Excluding tugs, steam canal boats and sailing vessels the lake marine consists of 1,816 vessels, 882,454 tons, valued at $57>°54>°°o. If the tonnage carried by this fleet in 1890 were loaded in freight cars 13,400 miles of track would be required to contain them. The estimated value of this traffic was $342,522,000. The John Jacob Astor was the first American vessel launched on Lake Superior (1835). The government has expended the total amount of $37,-247,993 for improvement of the lakes—less than one-third the amount saved to the country by lake commerce in one year. The first American vessel on the lakes was built at Erie in 1797. The first steam vessel on the lakes, measuring 240 tons, was built at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y. The first steam vessel on Lake Erie w? s the Walk-in-the-Water launched at Black Rock early in 1818. The Griffin, built by La Salle, was the first sailing vessel launched on the lakes (1679). She was lost on her first return voyage from Green Bay. The schooner Illinois was the first vessel to go from the lower lakes to Chicago. The water surface of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior, and connecting waterways, is 95,275 square miles, while the area of Great Britain, England, Scotland and Wales combined, is only 88,781 square miles. The coast lines of the great lakes contain more than half of the fresh water on the globe and have a combined length of 3,075 miles. It is 1,279 miles from Ogdensburg to Duluth, and from the northern shore of Lake Superior to the southern end of Lake Michigan is 520 miles. The distance from Chicago to Liverpool is 4.500 miles, one-half of which is covered by the great lakes and St. Lawrence river. From the Straits of Belle Isle to Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, is 2,259^ miles. From the Straits of Belle Isle to Liverpool is 2,234 miles. From the Straits of Belle Isle to Kingston, Lake Ontario, is 1,164 miles. From Kingston to Duluth it is 1,186 miles, over one-half of the distance from the Straits of Belle Isle across the Atlantic to Liverpool.