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In regard to the commerce of the “" Far West," much of which centers in Buffalo, a writer justly remarks:

"Few men have duly estimated the value of our 1,500 miles of uninterrupted lake navigation. A coast of upward of 3,000 miles, connecting with numerous canals and railroads, whose aggregate length, when they shall be completed, will greatly exceed the length of all our inland seas and coasts, must create an amount of commerce far greater than has ever yet been witnessed on the waters of the Mediterranean. The completion of the ship canal at the Saut Ste Marie alone opens an inland sea of vast and growing importance.”

TRADE AND COMMERCE OF BUFFALO-1856.

IMPORTS BY LAKE.

THE annual tables of the Lake Trade during the year, with some additional comparative statements showing the course of trade, the increase and decrease in the general average value of most articles, and other matters of interest concerning this trade during the year 1856, are copied from the Buffalo Courier. The value of Imports by Lake for the past six years is as follows:

This table exhibits a steady increase in the yearly valuation of the Lake Imports until last year, when there is a decrease as compared with 1855 of $4,662,740. This large decrease has been occasioned, not by a falling off in the receipts of the more valuable articles of import, but by the decline in the average value of nearly every description of produce.

The following table will show the different States through whose ports have been shipped the following produce received at this port. Through Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo, and a few smaller ports, we have received the products of Ohio, Indiana, Southern Illinois, and Kentucky, and through Chicago, the products of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Missouri.

The following Table will show the entrances and clearances of foreign and American vessels, together with their tonnage and crews during the year 1856, and the total for the past 7 years:

The amount of new tonnage now on the stocks both at this and other Western ports, and destined for the trade of this city and the West, will, we believe, increase the tonnage entering and departing from this district very materially during the coming season (1857), and that it must exceed any former year.

LOSSES ON THE LAKES.-If the losses on the great Lakes during the past year are any indication of the amount of commerce on our inland seas, it must have grown enormously since 1848. In that year the losses amounted to but a little over $400,000; in 1853 they had increased to nearly a million; in 1854 they were a little over two millions; in 1855 over two and a half millions; but the present year, 1856, they have reached the fearful sum of over three millions. But, large as this amount is, it does not seem so great when it is viewed in connection with the statement that the commerce of the Lakes passing the St. Clair Flats amounted in 1856 to more than three hundred millions of dollars, while the coasting trade not included in that estimate amounts to at least a hundred millions more. This looks very much like the course of empire taking awesterly direction.

Synopsis of the Marine Register of the Board of Lake Underwriters of vessels in commission on the lakes in the fall of

EXPORTS FROM UP-LAKE PORTS TO BUFFALO.

STATEMENT, showing the several amounts of Flour ad Grain exported by Lake from various ports to Buffulo, during the season of

TRIP FROM BUFFALO TO MACKINAC, CHICAGO, ETC.

THIS is a deeply interesting excursion, calculated to give the traveler a just conception of the great inland seas of North America, inasmuch as the route traverses Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron, and Michigan, a total distance of more than a thousand miles.

If to this is added a trip to the Falls of St. Mary (Saut de Ste Marie), in the outlet of Lake Superior, and connecting it with Lake Huron-to the Manitoulin Islands in the northern quarter of Lake Huron, their very name implying scenery fitted to excite sublime emotions, and suggesting the strong sentiment of religious awe which characterized the primitive red man—if these be added to the tour, no excursion of equal extent can be found that presents a greater variety of picturesque and magnificent scenery. Besides the above grand excursion, Lake Superior alone affords ample inducements for the tourist to extend his visit to this greatest of all the inland seas of America.

As this excursion begins on Lake Erie, we begin our guidance with a brief description of that noble and most useful body of water.

LAKE ERIE, washing the shores of four of these United States-New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan-and spreading between them and a large segment of the British province of Canada West, with the line of division as settled by treaty, running through the middle of the lake, is 250 miles long by 40 to 60 miles wide. Its surface, as ascertained by the engineers of the Erie Canal, is 565 feet above the Hudson River at Albany, and 330 feet above Lake Ontario. The greatest depth of the lake yet observed is 204 feet. This is comparatively shallow; and the relative depths of the great series of lakes may be illustrated by saying, that the surplus waters