habit of taking them for ballast at
a merely nominal rate, owing to the difficulty they experience in
procuring return freights from England. The short crops in Canada and
the great scarcity of money, forced an unusual number of laborers in
that country into the stave and lumber business. Under advices that
heavy shipments were in prospect, coupled with the general check upon
business on account of the war, prices became depressed.
Notwithstanding all this, the shipments hence, being early in the
market, sold to advantage, and may therefore be considered as a signal
success, under the circumstances. The smallest vessel going out from
here netted a freight of $3,500.

The most striking feature with regard to Detroit, in a commercial
point of view, is her admirable location, which constitutes her the
metropolis of a vast region, than which no city off the seaboard can
boast one equally grand or important. The region embraces a circuit of
some three thousand miles, composed of land and water, which both seem
to vie with each other in contributing to the material prosperity of
our city, while every interest involved is benefited in some degree by
her. In the far north, where the rugged coast of the upper peninsula
is lashed by the waters of the monarch of lakes, Detroit enterprise
assists in redeeming the hidden treasures of the earth from their
state of profitless inertion. There is not a hardy delver in the mines
who is not familiar with the skill of Detroit machinists, nor an echo
in all the majestic wilds skirting that noble expanse of waters, that
has not been awakened by Detroit steamers. Further down upon the
limpid waters of Lake Huron, where the army or rather the navy of
fishermen set their nets for the capture of the finny tribes, here,
too, our city possesses an interest almost as direct as if the canvas
of their tiny crafts were spread within sight of her spires, the
product comprising one of the most important staples in her multiform
commerce. Last, but not least, is the great lumber region with which
the prosperity of Michigan is so largely identified. The population of
this region, as well as of the others we have referred to, raise
almost literally nothing for their own consumption, their respective
pursuits being inconsistent with that of tillers of the soil, so that
in addition to the usual stores required by farmers, they have to
purchase their breadstuffs and similar supplies. The bulk of these are
b