Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Wyoming, Utah, Dakota, and Colorado, 34,882 miles; Pacific States, viz., California, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington, 2,339 miles. Considering that in the year 1830 there were in America just 23 miles of railway in operation, it must be admitted that this rapidity of increase is one of the most remarkable features of the country.

SEAPORTS AND BUSINESS CITIES.

The

COMMENCING with the northern coastline of the Atlantic seaboard, we find that the State of Maine possesses but two ports of any consequence. principal of these is Portland, the largest city on the coast east of Boston, and the terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway, in correspondence with which ocean steamers run to Liverpool and Glasgow. Its chief exports are flour and grain, shipped in great quantities, cattle, and petroleum, while ship-building is extensively carried on. Portland is also the head-quarters of the cod and mackerel fishing, in which Maine is exceeded only by Massachusetts. Bangor is a port with a considerable lumber trade, some little way up the Penobscot River. Portsmouth, the only port of New Hampshire, has the advantage of a deep harbour never impeded by ice, at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. It has a trade in lumber and fisheries. sachusetts, as being the busiest manufacturing State,

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possesses in Boston a port second only to New York as regards its foreign commerce; for, her harbour being rarely frozen over in winter, and having a very deep water front, she can load any number of vessels without delay. Boston is the business city of Massachusetts, the manufactures of which, in the shape of textiles, leather and leather goods, comprise nearly one-half the total value of all goods made in the State. The textiles represent over 92 million dollars, and about 28 millions are invested in the boot and shoe trade; and of the latter articles there were despatched from Boston in 1878 nearly 1,650,000 cases. The other chief shipments consist of cotton, wool, provisions, grain, and live cattle, and a great trade is carried on in connection with the fisheries. Boston has wonderfully increased in size. A hundred years ago its population was a little over 15,000, but now, with the adjacent towns of Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Brighton, which have been absorbed into it, the city contains nearly 400,000 people. The other ports of Massachusetts are Gloucester, from whence hail the cod and mackerel fishing vessels, and New Bedford, the head-quarters of the whale fishery.

Rhode Island has three ports on its short coast-line, viz., Providence, its capital, a busy manufacturing town at the head of Narraganset Bay, with a large coasting trade; Newport, remarkable for its splendid harbour; and Bristol, where some fishing is carried on. In the State of Connecticut are New Haven, with a coasting trade, but principally given up to manufactures, and Vew London, interested in the whale fishery.

New York, the metropolis of the United States, occupies the whole of the island of Manhattan, but it has so immensely increased in size of late years that it may be said practically to include the neighbouring cities of Brooklyn and Jersey City (in New Jersey), which are connected with it by steam ferries. The population of New York proper in 1880 was 1,206,590 (in 1800 it was only 60,489); but to that will have to be added the population of Brooklyn, 566,689, and sundry suburbs, which will bring it to nearly two millions. New York, like London, does business with all the world. It has docks with 25 miles of available water-front, while Brooklyn has a water and warehouse frontage of 8 miles in extent. In 1878 over 7,000 steamships, vessels of different nationalities, entered the port, and the value of the import trade in the same year was $303,186,867, and of the exports, $362,522,088. These great sums only concern the foreign trade, without taking into consideration the vast home trade and the gigantic manufacturing concerns of which New York is the centre. The bulk of the exports to Great Britain consist of cotton, grain, and petroleum, though there is also an enormous trade in bullion (gold and silver), copper, tobacco, and dairy produce, in which perhaps New York State exceeds that of any other. As the point from whence radiate numerous lines of steamers to all parts of the world, New York is the great emigrant port, the numbers (of all nationalities) who arrived. there in 1878 being over 75,000, who were distributed to their various destinations westward. The communication between England and New York is con

tinuous and rapid, and not a day passes without the arrival and departure of some of the great ocean steamers, such as the Cunard, Inman, or White Star Line to Liverpool, or the North German Lloyd to Southampton.

New Jersey State, although it has a considerable coast-line, has but few ports, its chief being Jersey City, which is united to New York by steam ferries, and, indeed, is practically identical in commercial and customs affairs. The Cunard steamers have their head-quarters here. Pennsylvania has no sea-board whatever; but the noble streams of the Delaware and the Schuylkill have placed the city of Philadel phia, which is 96 miles from the open sea, in the position of the third port of the States, ranking after New York and Boston. There are few, if any, cities in America which can show so continuous and rapid an increase in their business, or which present an appearance of such comfort and dignity as Philadelphia. Its chief exports are wheat, cotton and petroleum, and for the shipping of the former article, enormous elevators have been built at the junction of the two rivers. Besides these, there is a considerable live cattle export trade, together with fresh meat, refined sugar, agricultural implements, sewing machines, hardwares, etc. The exports in 1878 amounted to $48,379,031, and the imports to $21,048,197. As in most other American ports, the exports far outweigh the imports, especially since about the year 1873, showing how the country is more and more developing sufficient resources to supply her own wants, thus becoming less dependent on other countries, besides

having a large surplus to dispose of in foreign trade. Philadelphia is not only a great sea-port, but it is one of the chief manufacturing centres of the United States, the value of its industrial productions in 1878 being estimated at $115,000,000; the leading manufactures are iron and steel, engines and locomotives, clothing, carpets and woollen goods.

Delaware State, though it has a considerable coastline bordering Delaware Bay, has but one port, that of Wilmington (where some ship-building is carried on), owing to the fact that the shore consists of long sandy beaches, affording no good harbours or offings. A little to the south-east of Wilmington, although a long way round, if we follow the projections and sinuosities of the Chesapeake Bay, is the busy port of Baltimore, the fourth in value in the States. The principal exports are grain (the shipments of which have very greatly increased with the last few years), cotton, tobacco, (Baltimore being the outlet for the Maryland and Ohio tobacco crops), provisions, and particularly lard and bacon. Most of the bacon goes to England, and the lard to Germany. This port is the terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio railway system, by means of which a large trade is brought to it from the Western States. A regular communication is kept up with Liverpool by the Allan steamship line.

Virginia has two ports, viz. Richmond, situated some distance up the James River, and possessing a considerable trade in tobacco; and Norfolk on the south side of Chesapeake Bay, which has a harbour open at all seasons of the year. A large fruit shipping trade is carried on here, and there is a government naval