at both ends and a failure in the
middle, until it passed into the hands of the local government. If there
has been any job since, it has not been made public, and it is now a
most efficient and well conducted work, through which a very great
portion of the western trade finds its way, in despite of that
magnificent vision of De Witt Clinton's, the Erie Canal; and when the
Welland is navigable for the schooners and steamers of the great lakes,
it will absorb the transit trade, as its mouth in Lake Erie is free from
ice several weeks sooner than the harbour of Buffalo.

The old miserable wooden locks and bargeway have been converted into
splendid stone walls and a ship navigation; and, to give some idea of
the rising importance of the Welland Canal, I shall briefly state that
the tolls in 1832 amounted to L2,432, in 1841 had risen to L20,210, and
in 1843 to L25,573 3s. 10-1/4d.: and when the works are fairly finished,
which they nearly are, this will be trebled in the first year; for it
has been carefully calculated that the gross amount which would have
passed of tonnage of large sailing craft only on the lakes, in 1844, was
26,400 tons, out of which only 7,000 had before been able to use the
locks.

All the sailing vessels now, with the exception of three or four, can
pass freely; and three large steam propellers were built in 1844, whose
aggregate tonnage amounted to 1,900 tons; they have commenced their
regular trips as freight-vessels, for which they were constructed, and
have been followed by the almost incredible use of Ericson's propeller.

To show the British reader the importance of this work, connecting, as
it does, with the St. Lawrence and Rideau Canals, the Atlantic Ocean,
and Lakes Superior and Michigan, I shall, although contrary to a
determination made to give nothing in this work but the results of
personal inspection or observation, use the scissors and paste for once,
and thus place under view a table of all the articles which are carried
through this main artery of Canada, by which both import and export
trade may be viewed as in a mirror, and this too before the canal is
fairly finished.

WELLAND CANAL.

AMOUNT OF PROPERTY PASSED THROUGH, AND TOLLS COLLECTED. 1844.

Beef and pork barrels, 41,976-1/4
Flour do. 305,208-1/2
Ashes do. 3,412
Beer and cider do. 50