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foreign produce. The exports consist of wheat and flour, beef and pork, flax-seed, iron utensils, lumber, soap, and candles. The imports of British manufactures, wine, gin, duck, and glass, from France and Holland; rum and sugar from the West Indies; teas, nankeens, bale goods, and silk, from China and the East Indies. For this latter trade, more than twenty vessels, averaging 350 tons, are annually employed, each carrying out specie to the amount of 280,000 dollars. With the neighbouring states of New York and Delaware, there is a constant exchange of productions. It has been stated, that 1,600,000 of the importations of the western country, including part of Pennsylvania, the western part of Virginia, Kentucky, Tenesse, Ohio, and Indiana, and the wheat, flour, and bar iron, are sent from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in exchange for whale oil, whalebone, and dried fish. White and clouded marble is sent to New York and Baltimore, and other places. For the same staple productions, Rhode Island and Connecticut exchange their cheese; North Carolina, her tar, pitch, turpentine, and lumber; South Carolina and Georgia their rice, cotton, live oak, and cedar; and Virginia receives foreign articles for her wheat and tobacco, coal, lead, and peach-brandy. The

Flax-seed, 15,000 hhds. at 40s.

Timber plank, masts, boards, staves, and shingles,
Ships built for sale, 25 at L. 700,

Copper ore and iron, in pigs and bars,

Total,

L. 30,000

35,000

17,500

35,000

L. 705,500

annual quantity of salt brought from Onondago to Pittsburgh, by the Alleghany river, amounts to between 4000 and 5000 barrels. The quantity of boards and timber, which are brought down the Alleghany river and French Creek, is estimated at 3,000,000 feet, at nine dollars per 1000 feet. *

Middletown, situated where the Swetara joins the Susquehannah, has an excellent harbour, and is a place of considerable commerce. Columbia, in Lancaster county, is also a place of deposit for the produce brought down the Susquehannah, whence it is transported by waggons to Philadelphia.

Banks in Philadelphia, in November 1816.

Bank of Pennsylvania, capital,

Philadelphia,

Farmers' and mechanics' bank,

Bank of Mechanics,

Commercial,

Schuylkill,

Northern Liberties,

North America,

Girard's Bank,

2,500,000 dollars.

1,800.000

1,250,000

2,184,130

800,000

2,000,000

The amount of capital, the two last not included,

James Pemberton (then in his 90th year) mentioned to me, that he well remembered the time when there was but one ironmonger's shop in the place, and only one ship in the trade between Philadelphia and London; and the arrival of this vessel used to be of so much importance, that marriages were sometimes delayed until its return. Such is the great increase of this city, that it is now said to contain 106,000 inhabitants, more than 1000 families of whom are of our society, (Quakers.) Sutcliffe's Travels, p. 56.

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was 7,734,130 dollars; the bills in circulation, 3,415,418. The deposits, including those due to other banks, 8,449,474; notes discounted, 13,329,091; public loans, 2,396,071; specie, 1,148,907; amount of loans on interest, 15,725,162, which is more than double the amount of the capital stock. Amount of debts due on demand, 11,861,892, which is more than ten times the amount of specie in the vaults.

Insurance Offices.-In 1814, there were eleven, with a capital each from 300,000 to 600,000 dollars. For houses, the insurance is made for seven years, and the premium varies from 1 to 21 per cent. according to the situation, use, and dimensions of the building. The policy may be renewed for an equal length of time, by paying a dollar.

Bridges. Three superb bridges have been erected over the Schuylkill, one of which, 750 feet in length and 42 wide, consists of a single wooden arch, supported by two stone abutments, of which the span is 343 feet. It contains 12,752 cubic feet of timber, 52 tons of iron-work, and its whole weight has been estimated at 347 tons. The Leheigh chain bridge, over the river of the same name, a mile below the borough of Northampton, is 475 feet in length, in two whole and two half spans or arches. It was finished in 1815. There is a double passage for carriages, with a footway of six feet between the middle chains, which are of 13 inch square bar-iron. Twenty tons of bar-iron were consumed in the work, of which the whole expence amounted to 20,000 dollars.

The wire bridge, over the Schuylkill, near Phila

delphia, is 400 feet in length, extending from the window of a wire factory to a tree on the opposite shore. The wires, which form a curve, are six in number, three on each side, and three-eighths of an inch in diameter. The floor timbers two feet in length, and one inch by three, are suspended in a horizontal line by stirrups of No. 6 wire at the end of the bridge, and No. 9 in the centre. The floor, of one inch broad, is eighteen inches wide, and is secured by nails to the floor timbers, which are, themselves, fastened with wires. On each side, three wires are stretched along the stirrups, with a board six inches wide, to serve as a barrier or protection to passengers. elevated 16 feet above the water.

of the wires is

Of wooden work,

The floor is The whole weight

1314 pounds.

3380

Of wrought nails,

8

4702

In good weather, a bridge of this kind might be constructed in the space of two weeks, and the whole expence would not exceed 300 dollars. *

Since the year 1809, the legislature has passed twenty acts for the erection of bridges, five of which are over the Schuylkill, three over the Delaware, two over the Monongahela, two over the Juniata and the Alleghany, and one over the Susquehannah. Across the last, three other elegant bridges have been lately erected, one at M'Call's Ferry, one at Columbia, and

See Portfolio for June 1816.

a third at Harrisburgh. The second is a mile and a quarter in length; the last, three quarters of a mile. All the three were planned and erected by Mr Burr, and afford proof of the talents of this able architect. The piers are of stone, the upper parts of timber.

Houses.-Along the borders of the Susquehannah, the houses are of stone, brick, or wood; generally, in the older towns, to the eastward, in Reading, Lancaster, and Easton, they are of stone; in the counties, of wood. In all the newly settled districts, there are ten log-houses to one of stone. The state-house, or capitol, at Harrisburgh, and other public buildings, are large and magnificent.

Ports. The port of Philadelphia, though far from the sea, and inaccessible several weeks during winter, is nevertheless well adapted to commerce and shipbuilding. The port of Pittsburgh is a port of clearance, in latitude 40° 35', nearly 2000 miles from New Orleans.

*

Steam-boats, &c.-Six or seven steam-boats, of a

* Statement of distances, expences, and time of travelling from Philadelphia to Quebec.

From Philadelphia to New York by steam-boats

and stages,

New York to Albany, by the steam-boat, Albany to Whitehall, by stages, fare 5 dollars, expences 3 dollars,

Whitehall to St John, by steam-boat,
St John to Montreal,

Montreal to Quebec, by steam-boat,

D. Hrs. Miles.

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