The total amount of property thus shown to have been destroyed on the lakes and rivers of the interior, in the course of the year which ended on the 30th day of June, 1851, is much below the common estimate. But it is here presented only as an approximation, to receive just so much respect as statements made up in the manner of this are generally entitled to. It is perhaps quite as likely to be near the truth, however, as the exaggerated estimates usually made in such cases by interested parties who have a particular purpose to subserve. with reference to it, must be steadily borne in mind the fact, heretofore mentioned, that the year embraced was one of unusual exemption from serious disasters on the lakes and interior rivers of the United States.

And

A list, containing the names of 618 steamboats lost on the rivers of the Ohio basin and the Mississippi valley, from the period of the first introduction of steam navigation thereon to the close of the year 1848, has been prepared by Captain Davis Embree, one of the oldest steamboat masters ever engaged upon the western waters.

This list shows the place where, and the time when, each of the boats so lost was built; the amount of its tonnage; the date of its loss; the length of time it had been running when lost; its original cost; the depreciation of its value by use; and the sum finally lost in its destruction. Of the 618 boats it embraces, 45 were lost by collisions, 104 by fires, and 469 by snags and other obstructions to navigation. The following statement shows aggregate results:

Causes.

Number of Tonnage. Original cost. Depreciation Final loss. boats.

of value.

The losses sustained through explosions, collapsing of flues, and bursting of steam-pipes, are not included in this statement. With reference to losses of those descriptions, some interesting information is given at the close of Captain Embree's list, as also concerning the average life of steamboats on the western waters, the subjects of marine insurance thereon, the monthly and yearly cost of running boats, &c.

The history of the rise and progress of the steam-marine of the United States is one of the most interesting and wonderful things in our national advancement. Although one steamboat was built at Pittsburg as early as the year 1811, and although eleven other boats were built on the Ohio river and its headwaters within the next five years, it was not until the year 1817 that steam navigation could be said to have been fairly introduced upon the Mississippi and its tributaries. Previous to this year, there were twelve steamboats upon these waters, having an aggregate carrying capacity of 2,235 tons. From 1817 to 1834, the number of boats increased to 230, and the aggregate of tonnage to 39,000 tons. In 1842 there were 475 boats on the same waters: in 1851 this number had been increased to 601.

Official reports made to the Treasury Department in 1842, stated in detail the steamboat tonnage on the Mississippi and its tributaries in that year. The following table shows the increase from 1842 to 1851.

The year following the real commencement of regular steamboat navigation on the waters of the Mississippi and its tributaries, (1817,) the first steamer employed on the upper lakes was built and launched on Lake Erie. In 1819 the waters of Lake Huron were first ploughed by the keel of a steamer, and in 1826 those of Lake Michigan. In 1832 a steamboat first appeared at Chicago, and in 1833 there were but eleven small steamers on the three lakes named. This date may therefore be fairly taken as that of the real commencement of steamboat navigation on the upper lakes.

Ten years later (February, 1843) a report was made to Congress of the number and tonnage of steamboats employed on those waters, "from January 1, 1841, to January 1, 1843." Though this is a very loose way of stating a matter of this kind, and does not give the true amount of the steam tonnage enrolled and employed in either one of the two years included-necessarily overstating it-yet the facts thus presented are used for the purpose of comparing them with those now ascertained, as showing correctly the steam tonnage of the year which ended on the 30th June, 1851.

the

These comparative statements show that in a period of nine years steamboat tonnage of the Mississippi valley has nearly doubled itself, and that in a period of eight years that of the upper lakes has more than quadrupled itself: very significant facts touching increase of population, production, and trade.

The average size of steamboats now running on the lakes is found to be 437 tons; that of the steamboats of the Ohio basin 20633 tons; and that of those of the lower and upper Mississippi, the Arkansas, the Missouri, and the Illinois rivers, 27334. On the Mississippi and Ohio rivers there are many steamers of from 300 to 500 tons each, and a number from 600 to 800 each; but the large number of light-draught boats, built to run in periods of low water on those rivers, and in all seasons on the smaller streams emptying into them, carry the general averages down to the figures given above. Several of the passenger steamers of the lakes are of eleven hundred tons and upwards each.

The cost of steamboats on the lakes and rivers of the interior, varies from eighty to ninety and from ninety to one hundred dollars per ton. Taking the lowest price, which is that attainable in the Ohio basin, as the standard, we have as the original value of the 204,725, tons of steam tonnage engaged in the transportation of passengers and the carrying trade on the lakes and rivers of the United States, for the year ending June 30, 1851, an aggregate of sixteen million three hundred and seventy-eight thousand dollars; an amount of capital that goes entirely out of existence, and has to be re-invested every three and a half to four years the period of the "natural life" of a steamboat on the waters of the interior.

This fact indicates very clearly the immense extent of the employment provided and of the material consumed, in keeping up the steam tonnage of the United States to the standard required by the travel and trade of the country.