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(Answer.)

Dear Sir.   In reply to your note of this date, I have to state that one of the finest new American Ships that have entered this port during the year, and we have had many    was built in the Ohio River and near Cincinnati. The timber used in the construction of this ship was found in that neighbourhood, but the carpenters were brought from New York, and those by whose enterprise and whose capital this undertaking was accomplished were residents of New Orleans and Mobile.

It is probable, as the wish to prove the capabilities of the region in question for ship-building and not economy, was the object of these public spirited individuals, that the cost of this ship under the circumstances adduced would not compare favourably with the cost of similar undertakings at the present moment, on the Atlantic States.

Her measurement by Custom House register is 799 52-95ths tons, and she possessed apparently all the strength and solidity of a man of war. It was extremely gratifying to me as an American, to find such a striking and imposing evidence of the genius, the enterprise, and the energy of my countrymen    evidence to be carried and exhibited in all parts of the world. A ship of 800 tons, capable of carrying 2600 bales of cotton, built, sparred and rigged completely, of materials procured entirely in that region, 1800 miles from the sea coast   and then carried over rapids and shoals safely to her destined element, is a fact that speaks volumes for the people and the country.

I am Sir, very truly your obedient servant,

W. J. STAPLES.

extract   from the geological report of professor lawrance.

The mineral resources at Bon Harbor seem to be much the most flattering. That tract not only has a soil of unsurpassed fertility, but the coal in those hills, must itself be a mine of wealth. The fire clay will doubtless be of some value, and it is quite likely that the bed of limestone above the coal, will