th of these places has received a
great impetus since its completion, while numerous villages have also
sprung into being as if by magic at various points along the line.
These changes are plainly visible in the improved trade of our city,
and the increase from the same cause, must continue to be strongly
marked. Last season over one-fourth of the wheat and wool received
here was by this new route, and a number of vessels loaded at the
company's noble and spacious wharf for European ports direct.

Within the year past, the company have completed one of the finest
railway wharves in the world. It is 1,500 feet long by 90 broad, the
west end of which is occupied by the freight house, the dimensions of
which are 450 by 132 feet.

One of the most important events to Detroit and the entire West, that
has transpired for many years, is the completion of this great
thoroughfare. The link from Port Huron to this city was opened to
traffic on the 21st of November, since which date the businesses
crowding upon it has fully equaled its capacity. It is the Minerva of
railways, having reached at a single bound a condition of prosperity
outrivaling many of the oldest established roads on the continent.

It possesses important advantages over any other road both for freight
and passenger traffic. Being of uniform gauge, no change of cars will
be necessary from Sarnia to Portland; and being also under the
management of one corporation, it affords better facilities for the
protection of passengers and the preservation of their baggage than
where they are required to pass over lines under the control of
different and perhaps conflicting corporations. Having only one set
of officers quartered upon its exchequer, it can afford to do business
at lower proportionate rates, than a number of shorter lines, each
having a different set to salary, while the delay and vexation which
not unfrequently arise from short routes, being compelled to wait upon
each other's movements, will all be avoided, which is certainly no
small consideration both to passengers and shippers.

The harbor of Portland is one of the finest and most eligible in the
world, and our immediate connection with a point of such importance is
of itself a matter deserving particular mention. Portland district, as
appears by the official statement of the tonnage of the United States,
made to June, 1857, then owned 145,242 tons of shipping, being the
ninth port in the Union in poin