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James L. Barton, a gentleman long connected with the lake-commerce, thus wrote some years ago upon this subject to the Hon. Robert McClelland, then chairman of the House Committee on Commerce: "These difficulties are vastly increased from the almost impassable condition of the flats in Lake St. Clair.
So they have gradually disappeared from these waters, until at present their number is very small, compared with what it was ten years ago, while the number of screw-propellers is increasing yearly, as well as that of sail-vessels. Great as is this lake-commerce now, it is still but in its infancy.
And if, as we have shown, the trade of one of these lake-ports, in 1855, amounted to over four hundred millions, we may safely claim that the whole lake-commerce in 1860 exceeds the entire foreign trade of the United States. A few statistics of the lake-steamboats may not he uninteresting. They are taken from Mr. Barton's letter, above referred to.
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