hotels and taverns, a number of stores; eight large steam saw. mills, pail and tub factories, a foundry and machine shop, and other manufacturing establishments.

Steamers run from Grand Haven to Chicago, to Milwaukee, and also to other ports on Lake Michigan. Steamers also run from Grand Haven to Grand Rapids, about forty miles up the river, bringing down immense quantities of lumber and produce. Above Grand Rapids, where is a fall of twenty-two feet, steamers run to Lyons, about sixty miles distant, where steamboat navigation ceases.

The Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, when finished, will extend from Detroit to Grand Haven, 185 miles, running for most of the distance through a rich section of country. It will form a through line of travel, by means of steamers across the lake to Milwaukee, and through Wisconsin to the Mississippi River and the Far West.

GRAND RAPIDS, situated forty miles above Grand Haven, although in her teens, can truly assume the title of a city. With a busy, enterprising population of more than 8,000, and rapidly increasing, possessing a water-power unequaled by any in the State, affording to manufacturers and others tempting inducements; surrounded by a new, fertile, and rapidly improving country, it can not fail shortly to become one of the most prominent cities in the Northwest.

"Extensive and inexhaustible beds of gypsum, a valuable and almost indispensable soil-fertilizer in any country, are found near this place. Building stone of good quality, easily attainable, as well as other desirable building materials, are abundant, and much in requisition, of which fact there is sufficient satisfactory evidence in the noble structures to be seen here, both of stores and dwellings, many of which evince good taste and correct architectural judgment. I was credibly informed that there were mercantile houses, in this remote city, doing business to the extent of one to two hundred thousand dollars each, yearly. It is confidently expected that the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad will be completed and in operation from Detroit to this place during the summer of 1857. This road extends through an exceedingly rich agricultural section; that portion lying between the eastern bound of Shiawassa County and Grand

Rapids may safely be classed as the very best in the whole State, and I will venture the assertion that a very few years only will be required to demonstrate the truth of this, in the large amount of its surplus products seeking a market eastward, through the agency of this railroad."

THE GRAND RIVER PINERIES." Up in the northern part of the Grand River valley, and along and beyond the Muskegon River, an immense amount of pine timber is to be found. The mills upon the Muskegon River are, most of them, of later date than those of Grand River, and some of them are the finest in the world. One of the mills upon Grand River is so complete an automatic machine that it draws up and arranges its own logs, feeds them to any required thickness of boards, gigs back and sets itself, carries off and piles up the lumber, registers the number of boards cut-all by the aid of the most simple and beautiful machinery.

"At a low estimate," says the Grand Rapids Enquirer, from which we gather these facts, "the value of this trade foots up between five and seven millions of dollars. There is every prospect that these figures will be largely increased in ensuing years, there being thousands of acres of better pine lands than have yet been cut, yet lying untouched, north of these two rivers."

The following table shows, to some extent, the amount of lumber business now done on the Grand and Muskegon rivers and their tributaries:

Number of saw-mills on Grand and Muskegon rivers and their tributaries.

(These mills run from 1 to 130 saws each.)

Amount of lumber cut per year-feet.

Number of hands constantly employed in mills.
Number of hands employed in pineries in winter..
Number of hands employed in rafting and loading
vessels

Average load of vessels, feet

Annual number of arrivals of vessels carrying lumber from Grand and Muskegon rivers. .

12

115

173,000,000

48,000,000

3,000,000

200,000,000

1,150

3,460

660

80,000

1,920

DETROIT.

THE City of DETROIT, a port of entry, and the great commercial mart of the State, is favorably situated in N. lat. 42° 20', W. long. 82° 58′, on a river or strait of the same name, elevated some 30 or 40 feet above its surface, being seven miles below the outlet of Lake St. Clair and twenty above the mouth of the river, where it enters into Lake Erie. It extends for the distance of upward of a mile upon the southwest bank of the river, where the stream is three fourths of a mile in width. The principal public and private offices and wholesale stores are located on Jefferson and Woodward avenues, which cross each other at right angles, the latter running to the water's edge. There may usually be seen a great number of steamboats, propellers, and sail vessels of a large class, loading or unloading their rich cargoes, destined for Eastern markets or for the Great West, giving an animated appearance to this place, which is aptly called the City of the Straits. It was incorporated in 1815, being now divided into nine wards, and governed by a mayor, recorder, and board of aldermen. Detroit contains the old State-house, from the dome of which a fine view is obtained of the city and vicinity; the City Hall, Masonic Hall, Firemen's Hall, Mechanics Hall, Odd Fellows Hall, the Young Men's Society Building, two Market Buildings, twenty churches, ten hotels, besides a number of taverns; a United States custom-house and post-office, a theater, a museum, two orphan asylums, four banks, and a savings' fund institute, besides a great number of manufacturing establishments. There are also several extensive ship-yards and machine shops, where are built and repaired vessels of almost every description. The population in 1850 was 21,891; in 1856, 48,000.

Detroit may be regarded as one of the most favored of all the Western cities of the Union. It was first settled by the French explorers as early as 1701, as a military and fur trading port. It changed its garrison and military government in 1760 for a British military commander and troops, enduring under the latter régime a series of Indian sieges, assaults, and petty but vigilant and harassing warfare, conducted against the English garrison by the celebrated Indian warrior Pontiac. Detroit subsequently passed into the possession of the American revolutionists; but on the 16th August, 1812, it was surrendered by Gen. Hull, of the United States army, to Gen. Brock, commander of the British forces. In 1813 it was again surrendered to the Americans.

The railroads finished and in progress of construction in Michigan afford facilities of an immense importance to Detroit, and the State at large. The following lines diverge from Detroit:

1. The Detroit, Monroe and Toledo Railroad, 62 miles in length, connecting with the Michigan Southern Railroad at Monroe, and with other roads at Toledo.

2. The Michigan Central Railroad, 282 miles in length, extends to Chicago, Ill. This important road, running across the State from east to west, connects at Michigan City, Ind., with the New Albany and Salem Railroad-thus forming a direct line of travel to Louisville, St. Louis, etc., as well as Chicago and the Far West.

3. The Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad runs through a rich section of country to Grand Haven, on Lake Michigan, opposite Milwaukee, Wis., and will soon be completed.

4. The Detroit and Port Huron Railroad is also under construction, which, when completed, will connect Lake Huron by rail with the valley of the Ohio River.

5. The Great Western Railway of Canada has its terminus at Windsor, opposite Detroit, the two places being connected by three steam ferries--thus affording a speedy line of travel through Canada, and thence to Eastern cities of the United States.

The DETROIT RIVER, or Strait, is a noble stream, through which flow the surplus waters of the Upper Lakes into Lake Erie. It is 27 miles in length, and from half a mile to two miles in width, forming the boundary between the United States and Canada. It has a perceptible current, and is navigable for vessels of the largest class. Large quantities of fish are annually taken in the river, and the sportsman usually finds an abundance of wild ducks, which breed in great numbers in the marshes bordering some of the islands and harbors of the coast.

There are altogether seventeen islands in the river. The names of these are, Clay, Celeron, Hickory, Sugar, Bois Blanc, Ella, Fox, Rock, Grosse Isle, Stoney, Fighting, Turkey, Mammy Judy, Grassy, Mud, Belle or Hog, and lle la Peche. The two latter are situated a few miles above Detroit, near the entrance to Lake St. Clair, where large quantities of white-fish are annually taken.

ILE LA PECHE, attached to Canada, was the home of the celebrated Indian chief Pontiac. Parkman, in his 66 History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," says: "Pontiac, the Satan of this forest-paradise, was accustomed to spend the early part of the summer upon a small island at the opening of Lake St. Clair." Another author says: "The king and lord of all this country lived in no royal state. His cabin was a small, oven-shaped structure of bark and rushes. Here he dwelt with his squaws and children; and here, doubtless, he might often have been seen carelessly reclining his naked form on a rush-mat or a bear-skin, like an ordinary Indian warrior."

The other fifteen islands, most of them small, are situated below Detroit, within the first twelve miles of the river after entering it from Lake Erie, the largest of which is GROSSE ISLE, attached to Michigan, on which are a number of extensive and well-cultivated farms. This island has become a very popular retreat for citizens of Detroit during the heat of summer, there being here located good public houses for the accommodation of visitors.