tion of the Sault Ste. Marie, for it is continually
fluctuating with the trade of that region; but it is
now certainly on the rapid increase.

One of the annual payments to the Indians is
made here by the government, and in the autumn
when this takes place, thousands of the native
Americans throng the Sault to receive each his
ten silver dollars, or its equivalent in blankets or
arms, in payment for lands ceded to the United
States. About $40,000 are annually paid to the
Indians at this place.

There are now two or three good hotels at the
Sault, and travellers are hospitably entertained,
and find abundant amusement in fishing for
trout.

Savannah, Ga. The largest city in the state, a
port of entry, and the seat of justice of Chatham
co. It is 90 miles W. S. W. from Charleston,
South Carolina, and 158 E. S. E. from Milledge-
ville. Population, in 1810, 5195; 1820, 7523;
1830, 7776; 1840,11,214; 1850, about 17,000. The
population of Savannah is subject to considerable
fluctuations, with the change of the seasons from
summer to winter. The place having been former-
ly very unhealthy in the summer months, many
of the inhabitants were in the habit of visiting the
north at that season. These not only were at
home in the winter, but many visitors from the
north, in turn, sought the benefits of a milder
climate than their own, in this as well as in other
cities of the south. According to a census of the
city taken in the summer of 1838, the permanent
inhabitants amounted to 12,758, to which, accord-
ing to the computation of the officer employed to
take the census, 3000 should be added for the
transient winter population ; making a total,
during that season, of 15,758. Much improve-
ment in the salubrity of the place during the hot
season has been realized within the last 30 years,
in consequence of the substitution of the dry for
the wet cultivation of the rice crop in the low
swamps of the vicinity, and of better building and
other municipal regimen in the city. In the opin-
ion of eminent physicians, the summer in Savannah
is now even more healthy than the winter.

The city is built on the S. side of the Savannah
River, 17 miles from the ocean, on a sandy plain
40 feet above the level of the river. This plain,
which is nearly a perfect level, extends about a
mile E. and W. upon the river, and for several
miles S., increasing in width as it extends back
from the river. The city is laid out with regularity
and beauty, by streets crossing each other at right
angles, and having between every other street a
public square, generally enclosed and ornamented
with trees. These open parks, 18 or 20 in num-
ber, with their verdant carpeting and shaded
avenues, together with the rows of trees with
which the streets generally are lined on both sides
throughout, give to the city, during the spring
and summer months, an airy, cool, and rural
appearance. The space at present covered by
the city is about a mile in length, by three quar-
ters of a mile in breadth. The buildings are of
wood, brick, and stone, and many of them are of
fine architecture and elegant appearance. For-
merly the great proportion of wooden buildings
exposed this city to frequent ravages from fire.
The year 1820 was rendered memorable by a
most destructive conflagration, by which 463
buildings were consumed, occasioning a loss of
property to the amount of $4,000,000. It has
since been rebuilt, chiefly of brick, with many im-
72
provements in the means of securing cleanliness,
comfort, and health. Among the public build*
ings are the court house, jail, exchange, arsenal,
United States barracks, a market house, several
fine banking houses, an academy, a theatre, a
female asylum, a widows' asylum, a hospital, and
a poorhouse. One of the most splendid structures
in the city is that of the Independent Presbyterian
Church, which is constructed of a light-colored
granite, and cost $100,000. The city contains 12
or 14 churches, among which are a Presbyterian,
an Independent Presbyterian, a Baptist, 3 African,
(Baptist,) 2 Episcopal, a Methodist, a Lutheran,
a Unitarian, a Mariners' Church, a church for the
Roman Catholics, and a Jews' Synagogue. The
warehouses are ranged along the bank of the river,
3 or 4 stories high on the river side, accessible to
the lower story from the w'harves, and to the
upper from the city.

The position and the harbor of Savannah offer
fine advantages for navigation and commerce. The
harbor is one of the finest on the southern coast
of the United States. The entrance from the
sea, over the bar, is full a mile wide, affording,
without change, a passage of from 18 to 21 feet
of water at low tide. Vessels requiring 13 feet
of water come up to the wharves of the city, and
those requiring 15 or 16, to a good anchorage,
called the Five Fathom Hole, 3 miles below.
The navigator is guided to the entrance of the
harbor by the light-house on Tybee Island, which
having made, there is no difficulty, even for a
stranger, with the assistance of the Coast Pilot, in
effecting an entrance without risk, even during a
heavy gale of wind. Some impediments to the
navigation, which were placed in the river during
the revolutionary war, to obstruct the approach
of the British armed vessels, are not yet entirely
removed, though their removal was undertaken by
the United States, and is nearly effected. The tide
flows up the river 55 miles. Steamboats go up to
Augusta, 250 miles by the course of the river,
and pole boats go up 150 miles farther. There
are 2 companies employed upon the river, with 6
steamboats, 4 of which are of iron, and 30 tow
boats, of 150 tons' burden each, running to Au-
gusta. There are also 2 companies, with 11 steam-
boats and 42 tow boats, running through an inland
coast navigation to Darien, and up the Alatamaha
and Ockmulgee Rivers, 650 miles, to Macon. There
are also running, through an inland coast naviga-
tion, 2 steamboats to and from Florida; and 4 to
Charleston, 2 by the inland and 2 by the outside
passage. These boats run steadily through the
winter season, and during the summer whenever
the state of the rivers permits. There are 3 lines
of brigs, with 6 vessels in each line, sailing be-
tween Savannah and New York, making a de-
parture from each place every 2 days, and oc-
cupying 7 days, on an average, in the passage.
Savannah is already the centre of commerce for
a large area of country, which must hereafter be
very much extended. The commerce of the
neighboring state of Florida is much better ac-
commodated at the fine port of Savannah than
in her own shallow harbors. The dangerous
navigation round the Florida Cape, and the facility
of making a railroad communication over land to
Savannah, must give to this city an advantageous
position in the south. There are railroads, already
completed or in process of construction, to Macon,
in the centre of the state, and 100 miles farther
W., to connect with the Atlantic and Western