NEW ENGLAND.

celebrated for their fine ships, nautical prowess, and commercial spirit.
Their extended Atlantic sea coast, and their noble forests of ship timber,
give them as great, if not greater facilities for these enterprises, than
can be found in this or any other country.

The number of vessels built in the United States in 1833, was 1,188;
tonnage, 161,626 tons; of which there were built in New England 590:
tonnage, 95,146. The number of seamen employed in navigation in
the United States, was 67,744, of which 37,142 belonged to New
England.

In consequence of the absence of both natural and artificial channels
to the fertile countries on the borders of the great lakes, and west of the
Alleghany mountains, the exports and imports of New England, compar-
ed with the whole of the United States, appears small; but it must be
borne in mind that a large proportion of the ships and seamen employed
in this commerce belong to New England, and that a vast amount of the
exports from other states consist of the products of the manufacturing
industry and fishery of that section of the country.

The value of the imports of New England, during the year ending
30 September, 1837, tvas $22,052,414. Exports, $11,878,324. The
total value of the imports of the United States, in that period, was
$140,989,217; of exports, $117,419,376.

During that period the American tonfiage of New England, entered,
compared with that of the United States, was as follows : New England,
1,944 vessels, 393,877 tons: United States, 6,024 vessels, 1,299,720 tons.
During that time there were 949 vessels built in the United States;
tonnage, 122,987 tons ; of which 389 were built in New England, meas-
uring 51,983 tons.

Fishery. This important branch of industry, and one of the great-
est sources of wealth to the American people, has, from time immemo-
rial, been almost exclusively cairied on by New England vessels, men,
and capital.

In 1837, there were 508 vessels in the United States engaged in the
whale fishery; the total tonnage was 127,239 tons; of which number
459 belonged to the New England states ; measuring 115,194 tons. The
same year there were 127,678 tons employed in the cod and mackerel
fishery ; 126.963 tons of which were owned in New England.

Manufactures. From the first settlement of the country, to the
general peace in Europe in 1815, New England was emphatically a com-
mercial country. During the long wars in Europe, when the flag of
the U. S. was the only passport among the belligerent nations, New
England ships became the carriers of almost the whole of the eastern