GALENA LEAD TRADE.

We give below a statement of the number of Pigs of Lead, exported from Galena, for each of the last six years:—

This shows a falling off, which is not accounted for by the source from which we derive the foregoing figures.

RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS.

STATISTICS OF RAILROADS IN MASSACHUSETTS.

The Report of the Investigating Committee upon the Western (between Boston and Albany) Railroad furnishes some instructive tabular statements, which are of sufficient importance to place on record in this department of the Merchants' Magazine :—

COST OF MAINTENANCE OF WAY AND OF REPAIRS OF ENGINES AND CARS, ON EACH OF THE FOLLOWING ROADS, PER MILE RUN BY TRAINS, FROM 1846 To 1850 INCLUSIVE-FIVE

13,755,550

2,004,563 14.57 1,879,330 13.66 28.23

The above table contains the cost of maintenance of way, and repairs of engines and cars, per mile run, in five years, (1846 to 1850 inclusive,) on the Western, Boston and Worcester, Boston and Maine, Boston and Lowell, Fitchburg, Eastern, Boston and Providence, and Old Colony Railroads.

It will be seen by this table that, during the five years specified, the aggregate of miles, run by all the trains, on all the roads named, amounted to 13,755,550 miles; and that the aggregate sum expended by all for maintenance of way, was $2,004,563; and for repairs of engines and cars, $1,879,330; and that the total expenditure, for both these objects, was $3,883,893.

The table will further show the average amount expended by each road, per mile run, during the five years.

The general result furnished by this table is this:

The average sum paid for maintenance of way by any one road, per mile run, by trains, during the five years, was 22.41 cents. The least average of the same was 8.17 cents; and the mean of the whole was 14.57 cents.

The largest sum paid for repairs of engines and cars, for the same time, per mile run, was 24.65. The least average of the same was 9.39; and the mean of the whole was 13.66 cents.

The largest average sum paid by any one road, in any one year, for maintenance of way and repairs of engines and cars combined, was 49.8 cents; and the least sum paid by any one road for both 11.4 cents; and the mean of the whole was 28.23 cents per mile, run for both.

In the case of the Western, its maximum (1847) for both was 39.4 cents, its maximum (1850) was 30 cents, and its average for the five years 33.22 cents.

TABLE EXHIBITING THE QUANTITY OF WORK DONE IN FIVE YEARS, (1846 TO 1850 INCLUSIVE,) ON EACH OF THE FOLLOWING ROADS, EXPRESSED IN PASSENGERS CARRIED ONE MILE AND IN tons of frEIGHT CARRIED ONE MILE; ALSO THE GROSS EXPENSES OF EACH ROAD FOR THE SAME PERIOD. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS COMPARISON THE COST OF TRANSPORTING A PASSENGER ONE MILE AND A TON OF FREIGHT ONE MILE IS ASSUMED TO BE THE SAME.

The above table, it will be seen, contains a statement of all the work done on all the roads before named in five years, (1846 and 1850 inclusive). It exhibits also the entire cost of doing the work; that is to say, all three classes of expenses are included, being the amount expended of every kind, except interest on capital.

The general result furnished by this table is as follows:-

759,390,026 passengers or tons of freight were transported one mile on all roads named, during the five years specified, at a gross cost of $10,977,839; and to do this work the trains ran 13,755,550 miles. The table will show that the maximum cost was 1.961 cents per passenger or per ton, carried one mile; that the minimum cost was 1.302 cents; and that the mean or average of the whole was 1.445 cents per mile. In the Western, its figures stand: 213,925,952 passengers or tons carried one mile, at a gross cost of $2,937,593; and the average or mean cost, 1.373 cents per mile.

The following table shows the useful effect produced-being the amount of available or paying work done for each mile run by trains in the five years, (1846 to 1850 inclusive,) expressed in passengers or in tons, carried one mile.

The general result is this:

13,755,550 miles were run by trains, 759,390,026 passengers or tons of freight were moved one mile, and the average number of passengers or tons of freight carried for each mile run by trains was 54.12. The maximum number was 68.4; the minimum 40.0; mean 54.12.

In the case of the Western 3,696,713 miles were run by trains; aggregate of passengers and tons carried, 213,925,952: average number carried for each mile run, 57.9. It will be observed that no allowance has been made to compensate for the 2,000 feet and upward of elevation which the Western road has overcome between Albany and Worcester, nor for the heavy grades by which the principal summits are passed. It is plain to be seen, however, that with grades not exceeding those of the roads with which the comparisons are made, a large increase in the number of tons transported for each mile run would be exhibited in the table.

TABLE EXHIBITING THE USEFUL EFFECT, OR WORK DONE, FOR EACH MILE RUN BY TRAINS ON THE FOLLOWING ROADS FROM 1846 TO 1850, INCLUSIVE, EXPRESSED IN PASSENGERS AND TONS OF FREIGHT CARRIED ONE MILE.

COST OF RAILROADS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 1851.

a First report no part in operation. b No part in operation.

g Reorganized December, 1850. h Leased to Rensselaer and Saratoga Company.

c Operated by Erie Railroad Co.

f68,917 81 g556,090 62 h462,131 35

d Leased to ditto. e First report no part in operation. ƒ Second dit to

125,000

THE POETRY OF RAILROADS AND CANALS NO FICTION.

J. E. BLOOMFIELD, Esq., a gentleman known to the readers of the Merchants' Maga zine by his contributions to its pages in years past, says:—

It is more than eighty years ago that Darwin wrote:

"Soon shall thy power, unconquered Steam! afar
Drag the swift barge and drive the rapid car,”

a prediction as remarkable as its accomplishment.

Joel Barlow wrote his epic poem of the "Vision of Columbus," seventy years ago In the Paris edition, book ix., from page 253 to 262, he portrays the future progress of society with respect to Commerce, discoveries, and the opening of canals. From it I make the following extracts. The Erie, Ohio, and Illinois Canals are foretold:"Now, round the yielding canopy of shade,

Again the Guide his heav'nly power display'd.

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In distant glory, where the watery way,
Spreads the blue borders of descending day.
Unfolding flags from every eurrent sweep,
Pride of the world and daughters of the deep.
From arctic heav'ns, and deep in southern skies,
Where frost recedes as blooms of culture rise-
Where eastern Amur's length'ning current glides
Where California breaks the billowy tides,
Peruvian streams their golden margins boast,
And spreading Chili leads the channel'd coast,
The pinions swell; till all the cloudlike train,
From pole to pole, o'ershades the whitening main.

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He saw, as widely spread the unchanneled plain,
Where inland realms for ages bloomed in vain,
Canals, long-winding, ope a watery flight,
And distant streams, and seas, and lakes unite.
Where Darien's hills o'erlook the gulfy tide,
By human art the ridgy banks divide;
Ascending sails the opening pass pursue,
And waft the sparkling treasures of Peru.
Janeiro's stream from Plata winds its way,
Madeira greets the waves of Paraguay.
From rich Albania, tow'rd the falling sun,
Back thro' the midland, numerous channels run,
Meet the far lakes, their beauteous towns that lave,
And Hudson join to broad Ohio's wave.

From dim Superior, whose unfathom'd sea
Drinks the mild sunbeams of the setting day,
New paths unfolding, lead their watery pride,
And towns and empires rise along their side;
To Mississippi's source the passes bend,
And to the broad Pacific main extend.

The prediction of Darwin, relative to railways, is not more singular than the de

scription by Barlow of the Erie, the Ohio, the Wabash, and Illinois Canals. Barlow's poem, written, he states, (page 256,) "previous to the late war"-(meaning the Revolution)—is a remarkable production. He has certainly the right, with General Washington and General Schuyler, to claim the paternity of the Erie Canal.

Fulton, you may recollect, adopted Darwin's idea, in the "Lady Clinton Barge," attached to his first experiments in steam on the North River. But I am admonished not to trespass further on the pages of the Merchants' Magazine than to mention that Colonel J. Stevens, of Hoboken, said in 1811:-"I should not be surprised at seeing steam-carriages propelled at the rate of forty and fifty miles per hour, and I can see nothing to hinder one from moving on these ways with the velocity of one hundred miles an hour."

The Little Miami Road runs from Cincinnati to Springfield, Ohio, and is eighty-three and a half miles long, single track, costing $2,409,748, or say $27,661 per mile, all equipped. The following is an account of its earnings for the year:

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