158 JASSEJSIELY 



merits, not only a fostering care from the State of New- York, on 

 account of the tolls paid to her canals, but the freights thus se- 

 cured to American bottoms on the Atlantic, and the revenue ac- 

 cruing to the United States at the port of Oswego, demand a cor- 

 responding action on the part of the general government. The 

 foreign trade of the port of Oswego, which four or five years since did 

 not al!brd sufficient revenue to pay the expenses of the collector's 

 office, has increased the present season to over five hundred thou- 

 sand dollars in duties paid on foreign articles, with a fair prospect 

 that it may hereafter be counted by millions, should our govern- 

 ment respond to the wishes of our Canadian neighbors. There is no 

 port on our northern frontier that would command as great a 

 proportion of this foreign trade as Oswego. 



The waters of Oswego county, for hydraulic purposes, are not 

 surpassed by those of any other county in the State of New- 

 York. On the north, traversing the whole width of the county 

 runs Salmon river, with a heavy body of water, passing over a 

 rocky bottom with rocky bank and a sufficient fall to drive the 

 machinery for a nation. Near the western part of the county 

 we have Oswego river, the pride of western New-York for hy- 

 draulic purposes. This river, which receives the drainage of 

 some twelve of our western counties, and, as if to economise its 

 expenditures, the water is first entered into as many lakes which 

 serve as so many equalizing reservoirs, sending their steady sup- 

 ply at all times, unfrozen during winter, clear and limpid during 

 summer, unobstructed by ice floods in spring time, nor swelled 

 to any great extent by the early or late rains of the season, and 

 bidding defiance to the droughts of summer, flows on in one un- 

 ceasing current, sufficient for driving all the machinery that this 

 part of the State may require for generations to come. 



For inland commerce and transportation, Oswego county is not 

 behind the age. We have two railroads traversing the county 

 from north to south, and it is said we have more plank roads 

 traversing in various directions than any other county in the 

 State. Thus you see, that although we have not thought proper 

 till now to " come out," we hope through } our kindness to be 

 somewhat extensively introduced to the world. 



Yours respectfully, 



N. GOODSELL. 



