NAVAL BATTLE ON LAKE ERIE. SEPTEMBER 10TH, 1813, the hostile fleets of England and the United States on Lake Erie met near the head of the lake, and a sanguinary battle ensued. The fleet bearing the "red cross" of England consisted of six vessels, carrying 64 guns, under command of the veteran Com. Barclay; and the fleet bearing the "broad stripes and bright stars" of the United States, consisted of nine vessels, carrying 54 guns, under command of the young and inexperienced, but brave, Com. Oliver H. Perry. The result of this important conflict was made known to the world in the following laconic dispatch, written at 4 P.M. of that day: "Dear General: We have met the enemy, and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop. "With esteem, etc., 0. H. PERRY. "Gen. William Jones." Mr. Powell, the artist, who painted the De Soto picture for Congress, has been appointed by the Ohio Legislature to paint a representation of Perry's Victory on Lake Erie-the price not to exceed $5,000. It will be placed in one of the panels of the rotunda of the new State House in Columbus, the capital of the State. RAILROAD ROUTE AROUND LAKE ERIE. THIS important body of water being encompassed by a band of iron, we subjoin the following Table of Distances: Buffalo to Paris, C. W., via Buffalo and Lake Huron Miles. 63 84 Paris to Windsor or Detroit, via Great Western Railway. 158 Detroit to Toledo, Ohio, via Detroit and Toledo R.R.... Toledo to Cleveland, via Cleveland and Toledo R.R... Cleveland to Erie, Pa., via Cleveland and Erie R.R.. Erie to Buffalo, via Lake Shore Road... Total miles.. 107 95 88 595 The extreme length of Lake Erie is 250 miles, from the mouth of Niagara River to Maumee Bay; the circuit of the lake about 560 miles, being about 100 miles less distance than has been stated by some writers on the great lakes. OHIO RIVER AND LAKE ERIE CANALS THE Completion of the MIAMI CANAL makes four distinct channels of communication from the Ohio River through the State of Ohio to Lake Erie, namely: 1. The Erie Extension Canal, from Beaver, twenty or thirty miles below Pittsburgh, to Erie, 136 miles. 2. The CrossCut Beaver Canal, which is an extension or branch from Newcastle, Pa., on the Beaver Canal, to Akron, Ohio, where it unites with the Portsmouth and Cleveland Canal-making a canal route from Beaver to Cleveland of 143 miles. 3. The Ohio Canal, from Cleveland to Portsmouth, through the center of the State, 309 miles. 4. The Miami Extension, which is a union of the Miami Canal with the Wabash and Erie Canal, through Dayton, terminating at Toledo, at the mouth of the Maumee River on Lake Erie, 247 miles. The vast and increasing business of the Ohio Valley may furnish business for all these canals. They embrace rich portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana; but are not so located as to be free from competition with one another. At no distant time, they would unquestionably command a sufficient independent business, were it not probable that they may be superseded by railways. The capacity of railways-both for rapid and cheap transportation-as it is developed by circumstances and the progress of science, is destined to affect very materially the value and importance of canals. OPENING OF NAVIGATION IN LAKE ERIE. THE following table, prepared by the Detroit Advertiser, from back files, shows the time when navigation has opened at this port for the past seventeen years: 1840..March 8....Steamer Star arrived from Cleveland. 1841.. April 18.. 1842..March 3. 1843.. April 18.. 1844..March 11.. 1845..Jan'y 4. 1846..March 14. 1847.. 66 30. 1848.. 1851.. 66 .Prop. Manhattan cl❜d for Buffalo. 66 66 Arrow cl'd for Toledo. 22. 1849.. 66 21. 1850.. 66 25. 19. 66 May Queen Bay City arrived from Sandusky. Cleveland. Arrow cl'd for Toledo. May Queen cl❜d for Cleveland. DISCOVERY OF A NEW HARBOR IN LAKE HURON. We learn from a Michigan paper that Capt. W. Gilmore, of the brig Sultan, having come into collision with a vessel off the Middle Island, on the night of October 27th, 1856, was driven by stress of the accident into Bail du Derd, on the north side of Lake Huron, about eighty miles above Goderich. Captain Gilmore, in a letter to the editor of the Port Bruce Pioneer, states that there is plenty of water in the harbor for the largest vessel on the lakes, and a safe anchorage. A pier inside the harbor is alone wanted to render the accommodations perfect. The captain expresses the opinion, that a light-house and a pier would render this bay one of the finest harbors on the lakes. Since this letter was written, we are informed that a small town has been planted in that locality. BUFFALO BUFFALO CITY, Erie Co., N. Y., possessing commanding advantages, is distant from Albany 298 miles by railroad, and about 350 miles by the line of the Erie Canal; in N. lat. 42° 53', W. long. 78° 55′ from Greenwich. It is favorably situated for commerce at the head of Niagara River, the outlet of Lake Erie, and at the foot of the great chain of Western lakes, and is the point where the vast trade of these inland seas is concentrated. The harbor, formed of Buffalo Creek, lies nearly east and west across the southern part of the city, and is separated from the waters of Lake Erie by a peninsula between the creek and lake. This harbor is a very secure one, and is of such capacity, that although steamboats, ships, and other lake craft, and canal boats, to the number, in all, of from three to four hundred, have sometimes been assembled there for the transaction of the business of the lakes, yet not one half part of the water accommodations has ever yet been occupied by the vast business of the great and growing West. The harbor of Buffalo is the most capacious, and really the easiest and safest of access on our inland waters. Improvements are annually made by dredging, by the construction of new piers, wharves, warehouses, and elevators, which extend its facilities, and render the discharge and trans-shipment of cargoes more rapid and convenient; and in this latter respect is without an equal. Buffalo was first settled by the whites in 1801. In 1832 it was chartered as a city, being now governed by a mayor, recorder, and board of aldermen. Its population in 1830, according to the United States Census, was 8,668; in 1840, 18,213; and in 1850, 42,261. Since the latter period the limits of the city have been enlarged by taking in the town of Black Rock; it is now divided into thirteen wards, and, according to the State Census of 1855, contained 74,214 inhabitants, being now the third city in point of size in the State of New York The public buildings are numerous, and many of them fine specimens of architecture; while the private buildings, particularly those for business purposes, are of the most durable construction and modern style. The manufacturing establishments are also numerous, and conducted on a large scale, producing manufactured articles for the American and Canadian markets. The lines of steamers and railroads diverging from Buffalo tend to make it one of the greatest thoroughfares in the Union. Steamers and propellers run to Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Mackinac, Saut Ste Marie, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, etc. The railroads diverging from Buffalo are the New York Central, extending to Albany 298 miles by direct route; Buffalo Division of the New York and Erie Railroad; Lake Shore Railroad; Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Lewiston Railroad; and the Buffalo and Huron Railroad, the latter running through Canada to Goderich on Lake Huron, and connecting with the Great Western Railway, terminating at Windsor, opposite Detroit. The principal hotels are the American, Clarendon, Commercial, and Mansion House, on Main Street, and the Western Hotel, facing the Terrace. "The climate of Buffalo is, without doubt, of a more even temperature than any other city in the same parallel of latitude from the Mississippi to the Atlantic coast. Observations have shown that the thermometer never ranges as low in winter, nor as high in summer, as at points in Massachusetts, the eastern and central portions of this State, the northern and southern shores of Lake Erie, in Michigan, Northern Illinois, and Wisconsin. The winters are not as keen, nor the summers, cooled by the breezes from the lake, as sultry; and in a sanitary point of view, it is probably the healthiest city in the world. 66 London, usually considered the healthiest of cities, has a ratio of one death in forty inhabitants. The ratio of Buffalo is one in fifty-six. The favorable situation of the city for drainage, and for a supply of pure water; its broad, well-paved streets, lined with shrubbery and shade-trees; its comparatively mild winters; its cool summers; its pleasant drives and picturesque suburbs, and its proximity to the Falls, combine to render it one of the most desirable residences on the continent." |