344 



it is intended to pass, there can be no diversity of opinion, and when I 

 look prospectively at the tide of emigration which cannot fail to flow 

 into it immediately on the completion of the work, and compare the 

 position of this line, favorably connected as it will be with the main 

 leadin:^ lines through the States and Canada, with other lines that are 

 paying profitable dividends, I am fully convinced that it will yield a 

 fair remuneration to the stockholders. 



Saginaw, situated on the River Saginaw at the head of navigation, is 

 rapidly becoming a place of very considerable importance. The tribu- 

 taries of the Saginaw run through heavy and very extensive pineries. 

 There have been manufactured and shipped the past season, about one 

 hundred milli n feet of lumber. A large proportion of this would be 

 sent over the proposed road, and find a market in the southern part of 

 this State, and the northern part of Indiana and Illinois. A large, 

 rich, agricultural region, will naturally centre at Saginaw when this road 

 is completed, and find from that point the best and nearest market in 

 the mining districts; in a word, Saginaw will be the great depot of 

 supplies fur the mining regions of Lake Superior. 



Immediately upon the completion of this work, lines of steamers 

 will, I have no doubt, be established to run in connection with it and 

 Goderich, and other ports on the Canada shore of Lake Huron, which 

 will soon become the termini of lines now in course of construction, to 

 connect with the Grand Trunk, Great Western, and other leading lines 

 through Canada, and_^when the road in contemplation to Mackinaw is 

 built, which, in connection with your line will form part of the great 

 route to the rich and romantic regions of Lake Superior, the business 

 will increase beyond the expectations of the most sanguine. 



The coal fields of Michigan, though as yet submitted to an examina- 

 tion merely superficial, are ascertained to spread over the counties of 

 Calhoun, Barry, Clinton, Ionia, Shiawassee and Oenesee, all of which 

 are either crossed by or in the immediate vicinity of the line. This 

 coal has been tested for various purposes; for the heating of furnaces it 

 is said to compare favorably with the Blossburgh coal, and for its illu- 

 minating qualities, as far as submitted to actual experiment, reported to 

 be unsurpassed. These coal beds are supposed to embrace an extent 

 of not less than one hundred and forty miles in length, by ninety to 

 one hundred in extreme breadth, and probably covering an area of over 



