[149] In 1860 there were 265 steam-vessels of 104,543 tons register, belonging to the United States, and 104 similar vessels, registering 33,269 tons, owned in Canada, all of which were engaged in the commerce of the lakes. On January 1st, 1875, the number of steamers belonging to both countries, thus employed, had increased to 689, measuring 258,980 tons. They range in size from 250 to 1500 tons. But, besides these, there were 1770 sailing-vessels of 386,554 tons similarly engaged, or an aggregate of 645,534 tons, one in every five of which vessels can go through the Welland Canal, three-fourths of them being American and one-fourth Canadian. Some of the lake sailing-vessels occasionally trade to England, the first, the _Dean of Richmond_, having taken a cargo from Chicago direct to Liverpool in 1856. [150] “Civil Engineering of North America,” pp. 60, 61. [151] Long Island Sound lies between that island and the mainland, and extends in a north-easterly direction from New York Harbour, affording a sheltered line of navigation of about 120 miles in extent. [152] If any further proofs were necessary to show that almost everything done in this new business had its origin in England, these will be found in the fact, that a boat launched by Fulton on July 4th, 1815, was a counterpart of the one belonging to Mr. Miller, which he had seen on Dalwinston Lock some years previously. She was a structure resting upon two boats, separated from end to end by a channel 15 feet wide and 60 feet long. One boat contained the copper cauldrons, for preparing the steam; the other, the iron cylinder, piston, levers and wheels. The water-wheel revolved in a space between them just as in one of Mr. Miller’s boats. Had Fulton, in this matter, claimed originality, it would, certainly, be another and striking instance of two persons resident far apart from each other, carrying out the same idea, even in its most minute details. [153] See _Western States and Buffalo Advertiser_, quoted by Mr. John MacGregor in his “Statistics of the American Lake Trade,” London, 1847. [154] _Batture_ is the original French word, still retained, applied to the new formation of alluvial soil formed by the capricious action of the Mississippi. The Levee extends from 43 miles below the city to 120 miles above it.