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remarked,) with very remote sections of the country. Much of
this business is also transacted between Baltimore and the north-
ern and southern ports of America; via the Chesapeake bay and
Atlantic ocean. The number of vessels employed in the coasting
trade is said to be more than 2,000.

The staple commodities of Baltimore are flour, grain, tobacco
and cotton goods; besides these, however, there are a number of
articles which become every day more and more important as
objects of our commerce.

Imports.—Our imports from foreign countries, beyond seas, are
of the well known productions of those regions; many of which,
however, at this time, we receive through the medium of New
York. From the northern porls of America we obtain domestic
dry goods, glass ware, candles, cheese, onions, plaster of paris,
dried and salted fish, boots and shoes, rum, &,c. From the
southern states, we receive tar, timber, pitch, cotton, rice, &c.
From Virginia come fire wood, ship timber, tobacco and coal.
From the Eastern Shore of Maryland, we obtain timber, fire
wood, fice. By means of the Susquehanna river, which empties
into the head of Chesapeake bay, we receive from the interior of
New York and Pennsylvania, immense quantities of lumber, in-
cluding planks, lathes and shingles; also, whiskey, flour, coal, pig
and manufactured iron, magnesia and plaster of paris. These
articles are brought in arks and rafts as far as Port Deposit,
where they are shipped in the small bay vessels for Baltimore.

Exports,—Our staple commodities, mentioned before, are car-
ried, some of them at least, to every quarter of the globe. Be-
sides; to the northern ports of America, we send flour, corn, tobacco,
whiskey, sole leather, articles of chemistry, &c. To the southern
states we send flour, corn, pork, whiskey, gin, domestic and Eu-
ropean goods. To the various ports on the Chesapeake and its
tributaries, we send flour, corn meal, sugar, coffee, molasses, whis-
key, domestic and European manufactures. At present, there is
no return trade up the Susquehanna, on account of the rapidity
of that stream, which is only to be passed in any direction, at
certain seasons of the year. When the Susquehanna rail road is
completed this difficulty will be obviated, and the commodities of
this city may be exchanged, instead of the cash, for the articles
we receive from the regions of the Susquehanna.

The goods transported to the city by means of rail-roads and
turnpikes, from Alleghany, Washington and Frederick counties
of Maryland; from Franklin, Adams, Cumberland, and York
counties of Pennsylvania, &c. are flour, pork, beef, pig and cast
iron, lard, sole leather, linseed oil, flaxseed, &c. We send them
in return groceries, plaster of paris, domestic and foreign goods.

We will now notice the various institutions of a commercial
character which seem proper to be disposed of under this head.

For the officers of the custom house, the port wardens, &c.
See chapter, IV.