The Norfolk City Mill is worthy of note. The building is substantial, 100 feet long and 60 feet wide, and three stories high, furnished with four run of stones, and capable of grinding 140 bbls. of flour in twenty-four hours. The product was 10,000 barrels during the year. Additions are to be made to the machinery this year, which will double its capacity.

The success of this establishment illustrates what may be done by the application of capital, skill, business tact, and steam, to other manufactures.

There are a large number of small vessels engaged in the trade of the James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac frivers and Eastern shore of Virginia, of whose arrival and departure no record is given.

AVENUES OF TRADE AND TRAVEL.

These are Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad, Dismal Swamp Canal, and Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. The two latter open up to Norfolk 1,500 miles of inland navigation in North Carolina. We name, also, the Currituck and Norfolk Steamboat Company, and Seaboard Towing and Transportation Company. The latter is designed to secure a large share of the present business of the James River and Kanawha Canal, bringing boats from any point on the canal to Norfolk without breaking bulk.

The several lines of steamers which connect Norfolk with other ports in and out of the State are:

New York and Virginia Steamship Company, with two steamers.
Cromwell Line, to New York, with three steamers.

The Union Company, to Philadelphia, with three propellers.

Richmond and James River Steamboat Company, with two steamers.

Norfolk and Chesapeake Steamboat Company, and the Norfolk, Smithfield' and York River Company, each one boat.

With the well-known natural advantages enjoyed by Norfolk, and with all the improved artificial avenues of trade and travel which she enjoys, Norfolk has a promise of a rapid increase of her trade and commerce; and especially, as some of the works of internal improvements terminating at her port penetrate fertile regions which have hitherto been shut out from a market.

TONNAGE OF NEW YORK.

The New York Journal of Commerce gives tables of the tonnage of the port as follows:

The clearances for the last year were 1,953 American vessels, with a tonnage of 981,619, and 1,300 foreign, with a tonnage of 602,5692.

The statement of coast wise commerce includes only such vessels as were obliged, from the nature of their cargo, to make record at the custom house of their arrival or departure. This fact accounts for the difference between the entries and clearances. The arrivals for the last year include 621 vessels under register, and 1,217 under license; the clearances include 1,247 under register, and 3,415 under license.

VIRGINIA FLOUR TRADE.

The following is a comparative statement of the inspections of flour, in this State, during the past quarter, and same period of three preceding years-half barrels reduced to barrels :

The inspections at the same points, from 1st July to 31st Dec., (six months,) were as follows:-In 1856, 458,168 bbls., in 1857, 567,084 bbls., in 1858, 575,484, and in 1859, 658,798 bbls. Increase over last year, 83,314 bbls.

The inspections at Falmouth, last quarter, were 264 bbls. family; 10,251 bbls. extra; 1,558 do. superfine; 365 do. fine; 290 middlings. The inspections at Alexandria, in 1859, were as follows:-1st quarter, 14,155 bbls.; 2d quarter 14,425 do.; 3d quarter, 11,578 do.; 4th quarter, 28,373 do. Total, 68,531 bbls

COMMERCE OF CALAIS, ME.

During the last year there were 786 arrivals and departures of vessels at the port of Calais, Among the exports coast wise were 47,271,703 feet spruce lumber, 7,535,753 feet pine, 4,690,135 feet hemlock, 104,632,300 laths, 1,647,235 pickets, 11,126,000 shingles, 18,661 hacmetac knees, 7,600 sugar boxes, 18,724 barrels calcined plaster. Exported to foreign countries, from the river, 19,173,000 feet deals, 673,000 feet boards, 4,266,000 laths, 2,000,000 shingles, 213,000 pickets.

NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

FIXED AND FLASHING LIGHT ON HUAPILACUY POINT, COAST OF CHILE. Official information has been received at this office, that on and after the 1st day of November, 1859, a light would be exhibited from the lighthouse erected on Huapilacuy Point, at the entrance to Port San Carlos de Ancud, on the north coast of the island of Chile. The light is a fixed white light, varied every minute by a flash. It is elevated 197 feet above the level of the sea at high water, and should be visible in clear weather from a distance of 12 miles. The illuminating apparatus is dioptric, or by lenses of the fourth order. The lighttower is 32 feet high, circular, and painted white; the lantern is painted green. From it the west point of the Isla Dona Sebastiana bears N. N. E.; Huapacho Point, W. by N.; and Huachucucuy Head, W. by S. Its position, according to the Chilian notice, is latitude 41° 46′ 15′′ S.; longitude 74° 1' west of Greenwich; but on the Admiralty plan of Port San Carlos, Huapilacuy Point is in latitude 41° 46′ 45′′ S.; longitude 73° 55′ 45′′ W.

CAUTION. The mariner will observe that the above bearing from the light to Huachucucuy Head, W. by S., passes to the southward of Huapacho Point and Corona Head; vessels therefore approaching Port San Carlos from the southward, after rounding Huachucucuy Head should continue steering to the northeastward (keeping Corona Head to the southward of east to avoid the Huapacho Shoal,) until the light bears S. E. by E., when they can haul to the southward and act according to circumstances. The bearings are magnetic. Variation 19° east in 1860. By order,

WASHINGTON, February 7, 1860.

R. SEMMES, Secretary.

BEACON LIGHT NEAR CALAIS-DOVER STRAITS.

Official information has been received at this office that the Imperial Ministry for Public Works in France has given notice that, on and after the 15th December, 1859, a light will be exhibited during the whole of the night from the iron beacon erected in the early part of the year 1858 on the extreme edge of the beach, at a mile from the coast of Pointe de Walde, and E. by N. N. about 3 miles from Calais lighthouse. The light will be a fixed white light, varied every twenty seconds by a red flash, without any eclipse; the duration of the white light will be sixteen seconds, and of the red flash four seconds. The light will be 344 feet above the level of the highest tides, and should be visible from a distance of 10 miles. The beacon is a useful guide to vessels when the beach is covered, but it is left dry at low water ordinary springs. It stands in latitude 50° 59' N., longitude 1° 55′ 4′′ east of Greenwich. The bearings are magnetic. Variation 204° west in 1859. By order, R. SEMMES, Secretary.

WASHINGTON, November 14, 1859.

HARBOR OF GALVESTON, COAST OF TEXAS.

DISCONTINUANCE OF A LIGHT-VESSEL.

Official information has been received from Lieut. W. H. STEVENS, Corps of Engineers, that two beacons have been erected in the range of the channel leading into the harbor of Galveston. From and after sunset on the evening of Monday, April 2, 1860, these beacons will show white lights of the 6th order of the system of Fresnel. On the same date the light-vessel at the entrance to Galveston Harbor will be discontinued. By order,

WASHINGTON, March 1, 1860.

WM. F. SMITH, Secretary.

FIXED LIGHT ON THE COLUMBRETES ROCKS, COAST OF SPAIN. Official information has been received at this office, that on and after the 30th day of December, 1859, a light would be exhibited from the lighthouse recently erected on the northeast part of Colibre, the principal islet of the Columbretes Rocks, lying off the south coast of Spain, province of Castellon. The light is a fixed white light, elevated 190 feet above the mean level of the sea, and visible in clear weather from a distance of 21 miles. The illuminating apparatus is dioptric, or by lenses of the first order. The light-tower is colored white, is slightly conical, and rises from the middle of a square building of the same color. It stands at 140 yards from the margin of the sea, on an eminence named Monte Colibre, in latitude 39° 53′ 58′′ north, longitude 0° 44' 27" east from Greenwich

FIXED AND FLASHING LIGHT AT BARCELLONA.

Also, at the same date, that in the place of the fixed red light hitherto shown from the Mole at Barcellona, south coast of Spain, a light would be exhibited from the extremity of the eastern Mole, at the center of the Mole Head, now completed. The light is a fixed white light, varied every four minutes by a red flash. It is elevated 43 feet above the mean level of the sea, and should be visible in ordinary weather from a distance of 9 miles. The illuminating apparatus is dioptric, or by lenses of the fourth order. The light-tower is octagonal, and of a brick color. It stands in latitude 41° 22′ 10′′ north, longitude 2° 11' 11" east from Greenwich. In addition to the above light, and at the distance of 295 yards from it, another light of a green and white color is shown at the extremity of the glacis, or ledge of stones, now being placed to protect the pierhead. By order,

WASHINGTON, February 14, 1860.

R. SEMMES, Secretary.

ALTERATION OF LIGHTS ON BLACKWATER BANK, IRELAND. Information has been received at this office that the Port of Dublin Corporation has given notice that on and after the 1st day of July, 1860, the two lights (the one revolving and the other fixed) at present exhibited from the light-vessel moored off the northwest part of the Blackwater Bank, east coast of Ireland, will be discontinued, and thenceforth a fixed white light will be exhibited from the vessel's mainmast. The light will be elevated 33 feet above the level of the sea, and in clear weather should be seen from a distance of about 9 miles. The vessel will carry a black ball at her mainmast head.

ALTERATION OF LIGHT ON ARKLOW BANK.

Also, that at the same date the fixed white light at present exhibited from the light-vessel moored off the south end of the Arklow Bank will be discontinued, and thenceforth a revolving white light, which will attain its greatest brilliancy once in every minute, will be exhibited from the vessel's mainmast. The light will be elevated 39 feet above the level of the sea, and in clear weather should be seen from a distance of about 10 miles. This vessel will also carry a black ball at her mainmast head.

ALTERATION OF THE HEIGHT OF LIGHTS ON KISH BANK.

Also, that on and after the 1st day of July, 1860, the lights at present shown from the fore and mizzen masts of the light-vessel moored off the north point of the Kish Bank, at the respective heights of 26 and 25 feet above the level of the sea, will be lowered 6 and 5 feet, or each to the height of 20 feet above that level. The light exhibited from the mainmast will remain, as at present, at a height of 36 feet above the level of the sea, or 16 feet above the level of the two other lights. This vessel will carry a black ball at each mast head. This alteration is deemed desirable, it having been represented that the lights now exhibited are, when seen in one, liable to be mistaken for a single light. By order,

WASHINGTON, February 20, 1860.

R. SEMMES, Secretary.

COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS.

RAILROAD SYSTEM IN CANADA-ITS EFFECTS UPON AMERICAN INTERESTS. The following is an official letter from WYMAN B. S. MOORE, Consul-General of the British North American Provinces, dated Montreal, January, 1860:— The completion of the Victoria Bridge, which must be considered, mechanically at least, the great work of the age, renders it proper that I should communicate to the Department such information as I am possessed of relative to the railroad system of Canada and its bearing upon similar interests in the United States.

The Victoria Bridge, with its approaches of massive masonry, is near two miles in length. The iron tubes are in length over seven thousand feet, resting on twenty-four piers and two abutments. It has been built at a cost of about seven millions of dollars. It constitutes the connecting link of a line of railroads from our Western cities, over Canadian territory, to the sea at Quebec and the river De Loup, one hundred miles below Quebec on the gulf, and over Canadian and American territory to the sea at Portland.

The Grand Trunk Railroad, of which this bridge constitutes a part, extends from the river De Loup to Port Sornia on the St. Clair, and from Sornia or Port Huron, on the opposite shore, it has caused to be constructed, under its control, a railroad to Detroit, and by a lease of the line from Island Pond to Portland, Maine, it has a united line of the same gauge under one management, commencing at Detroit, with two outlets to the sea, one at Portland, Maine, the other at Quebec or the river De Loup. The whole extent of this line is about eleven hundred miles.

To its construction the province of Canada has contributed sixteen millions of dollars, the balance of the capital has been advanced by shareholders in England, and the line is now in working order at a total expense of sixty millions of dollars. Efforts are now being made to extend this line to the eastern British provinces by the way of Lake Temiscouata and the river St. John's, keeping its track entirely within the provincial boundaries. Its main resources must be American business. Its local business cannot support it. It is now doing a large business between our Western cities and its terminus at Portland. I have seen, within the few past weeks, large quantities of cotton, raised in Tennessee, passing by this route to the factories of New England.

That there must, in a short period, be a great diversion of the traffic which supports the American railroads and canals to this and the other Canadian routes, must be obvious to any one who will consult the map of the country, and consider the magnitude of the internal improvements of Canada. The canals constituting the connections between this port and Lake Erie are capable of passing laden vessels of the burden of six hundred tons.

These facilities of internal navigation will draw largely upon our Western trade, and, had it not been formerly the policy of the British Government to exclude American influence from Canada, and to keep the country shut out from external commerce, this great natural outlet of the West-the St. Lawrence, with its immense locks and canals-would have borne our commerce to the Atlantic. as it draws the waters of our lakes. That policy has changed. The government of this province and the capitalists of Great Britain are united in their efforts to make their canals and railroads the thoroughfares of Western commerce to the Atlantic. They have built across the peninsula of Western Canada three other routes to accomplish this result. The Great Western Rail road from Windsor, opposite Detroit, to Hamilton, Canada West; the Northern Railroad. from Collingwood, on the Georgian Bay, to Toronto; the Buffalo and Lake Huron Road, from Fort Erie to Goderich, on Lake Huron; all of these, except perhaps the latter, connect on Lake Ontario, in the summer season,