tricts already being considerably in advance of the production of many articles-attention will be so strongly attracted to the resources of the soil as to insure not only an adequate supply for home use, but an ample surplus for exportation.

The importations for 1851, consisting principally of assorted merchandise, flour, fish, and manufactures of iron, amounted to

The exports consist of wool, lumber, wood, bark, glass, stoves, bariron, coal, and merchandise received by canal, with a small quantity of grain-the whole amounting to the following aggregate:

The entire commerce of the port amounts to a total value of $4,206,483. The character and quantity of some of the chief articles of export, and their comparative increase and decrease, are exhibited in the annexed tables for the series of years as named:

The Erie extension canal has been in operation since 1845, and the effect is seen in the increase of business. It is worthy of note, that during some seasons produce goes southward, and at others northward. The licensed and enrolled tonnage of this port is 7,882 tons.

The tables following this report exhibit the commerce of the district in detail, with value, tonnage, entrances and clearances, complete.

Lake receipts coastwise at the port of Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1851.

Shipments coastwise at the port of Eric, Pennsylvania, in 1851.

Port of entry, Cleveland, Ohio; latitude 41° 30', longitude 81° 40'; population in 1830, 1,076; in 1840, 6,071; in 1850, 17,034.

This is a most important district, second in the value of its commerce to none west of Buffalo. It embraces all that portion of the south coast of Lake Erie which lies between the western State line of Pennsylvania and the Black river, a distance of one hundred miles.

It contains, beside Cleveland, the port of entry, many minor ports of considerable importance, such as Conneaut, Ashtabula, Cunningham's Harbor, Madison Dock, Fairport, and Black River.

This district has for its back country one of the finest and most varied agricultural districts of the whole lake-shore region. The face of the land is soft and rolling, the soil in great part warm and fertile, and especially adapted to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, and to the growth of all the cereal crops.

Among its most important and valuable exports are wheat, corn, and flour; large quantities of fruit, both green and dry, are sent off annually, together with pork, beef, butter, cheese, and vegetables, in all directions ; but chiefly eastward by the lake, with the exception of butter and cheese, large quantities of which go southward by the Ohio canal, destined for Cincinnati, and thence for New Orleans and other southern cities.

A railway passing through the entire length of the district on the lake shore is nearly completed, which is destined eventually to become a portion of the continuous chain from Buffalo to Chicago. One railway, connecting Cleveland with Columbus and Cincinnati, and another forining a communication with Pittsburg, are already completed; and many branches of importance, scarcely second to the main lines, are far advanced already in construction.

Of canals, Cleveland has two of great value, one connecting her with Portsmouth, on the Ohio, and another uniting the line at Akron with Beaver, on the Ohio-virtually a canal from Cleveland to Pittsburg, inasmuch as loaded canal boats are continually towed by small steamers from the mouth of Beaver river to the latter city.

With three different lines of internal communication direct to the harbors on the coast, most of them among the best on the lakes, and these from the centre of the richest of the western States, it will readily be perceived that the district of Cuyahoga must be the theatre of commercial transactions, which have no small influence upon exchanges of produce and merchandise in the great marts of the seaboard. Conneaut, the easternmost port of the district, is about twenty miles west from Erie, situated upon a river of the same name, which affords a good harbor. No returns exhibiting the commerce of this port, separately, have been received; but it is very considerable, as Conneaut is the entrepot for the landing of supplies and the shipping of produce for a large and fertile agricultural region, not only of the adjacent country in Ohio, but of an important section of Pennsylvania.

The next port to the westward is Ashtabula, similarly situated on a small stream bearing its own name, forming a good harbor, with facilities equal to the requirements of the place. The town stands back some two or three miles from the port, upon a rise of ground, forming a singularly eligible site.

The commerce of this port for the year 1851 consisted principally of butter, cheese, wool, leather, beef, pork, ashes, fruit, lumber, staves, &c., for exports, amounting to the value of....

$450,291

And of merchandise, agricultural implements, furniture, hides, and a little wheat and flour, for imports..

504,211

Making the total declared value of the trade of this port......

951,502

The tonnage owned at Ashtabula consists of two brigs, of 280 tons each, several schooners and one scow, making an aggregate of 1,741 tons, employing seventy-six men in their navigation.

Cunningham's Harbor is a port at present of small moment, except for the shipment of staves and lumber.

Madison Dock is a pier built out into the lake, in front of the town of Madison, about eighteen miles west from Ashtabula, and twelve east from Fairport, for the accommodation of the neighborhood in shipping staves, lumber, and produce. No separate estimates of its commerce have been kept for the past year.

Fairport stands on the Grand river, which furnishes one of the most eligible harbors in the West, and is quite sufficiently capacious for the traffic of any western port. It is thirty miles west from Ashtabula, and thirty east from Cleveland, and is merely a shipping and receiving port-Painesville, on the ridge, three miles inland from the lake, being the principal mart and place of business, as well as the county seat of Lake county. It is to be regretted that no particular returns have been received from this place, indicating the amount of its commerce, tonnage, &c., as it is a port of no little consideration, and holds