Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/65

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day. The quarto edition of Joel Barlow's Columbiad is an unrivalled specimen of printing. The types were cast by Messrs. Binnie and Ronaldsons, who, by their skill and individual exertions, have saved the United States from importing these essential literary implements. Mr. Melish's[27] geographical establishment, is another prominent concern. He is continually embodying the most recent government surveys of the interior, into the general maps of the country. At Lehigh Falls, on the Schuylkill, there is a mill for cutting brads, which produces no less than two hundred in a minute. Philadelphia is in various respects well adapted to manufacture; if the facilities which it presents for its advancement are neglected, the city must decline, as the trade of New York and Baltimore is making rapid progress. The new road from the latter city to the Ohio,[28] and the extension of carriage, by steam boats, through the Mississippi and the Ohio, are all circumstances which tend to supersede Philadelphia as a market and as a thoroughfare.

At present, vast quantities of English goods are selling by auction in the ports of the United States. New York is the chief mart in this way. Merchants from the country, attend sometimes these {34} sales for many days, and even for weeks together. Public sales, and the present low prices, are very injurious to the merchants and manufacturers of England.

Probably the market of Philadelphia displays the greatest quantity of fruits and vegetables in the world. Boat loads are brought by the Delaware, and numerous waggons come loaded from the interior. Peaches, apples,