204 A PEEP AT 



or receipts for money paid at one office and to be re- 

 paid at another, to the amount of $40,756,475. The 

 gross receipts of the British Post Office for 1849 Avere 

 $10,962,390 ; expenditures, $6,934,265 ; net rev- 

 enue, $3,702,145. 



America is the largest country in the world, pos- 

 sessing a greater extent of territory than any nation 

 either in ancient or modern times. 



The commerce of the Valley of the Mississippi 

 alone is estimated at the value of $439,000,000 ; be- 

 ing double the amount of the whole foreign commerce 

 of the United States. The number of steamboats on 

 the " Father of waters," the Mississippi, in 1848, 

 was 572; tonnage, 118,655 ; valued at $5,189,979. 



Previous to the year 1800, some eight or ten keel 

 boats performed all the carrying trade between Cin- 

 cinnati and Pittsburg. In 1802, the first Govern- 

 ment vessel appeared on Lake Erie. In 1811, the 

 first steamboat, the Orleans, was launched at Pitts- 

 burg. Previous to 1817, about twenty barges, aver- 

 aging one hundred tons burden, comprised all the 

 facilities for commercial transportation between New 

 Orleans and the country on the Ohio river as high up 

 as Louisville and Cincinnati. Each of these boats 

 made one trip down and back, between those two 



