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PART I

THE GEOGRAPHY OF MARYLAND

BY

WM. BULLOCK CLARK

THE GEOGRAPHY OF MARYLAND

BY

WM. BULLOCK CLARK

INTRODUCTION

LOCATION.-The State of Maryland, lying midway between the North and the South, and stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the crest of the Alleghanies, with the great estuary of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries extending far into the land in all directions, possesses many natural advantages in its location. There is probably no state of equal size in the Union that has such a variety in its agricultural and mineral resources and in its sea and bay products, while its generally salubrious climate renders every section healthful as a place of residence. From its eastern to its western borders may be found a succession of districts suitable from their surroundings for the most diverse employments.

The State of Maryland is the most northern of the Southern States, and is situated between the parallels 37° 53′ and 39° 44′ north latitude and the meridians 75° 4' and 79° 30' west longitude.

BOUNDARIES.-The boundaries of Maryland are based upon both arbitrary locations and geographic features. Different interpretations of the descriptions of the limits of the early grants, such as "the land hitherto unsettled," and "the first fountain of the Potomac," led to prolonged disputes, some of which have only been settled in recent years. The northern, as well as parts of the eastern, southern, and western boundaries. are conventional lines of which the best known is the "Mason and Dixon Line."

The eastern and northern boundaries of Maryland consist of the Atlantic Ocean and a line separating the former possessions of the Penns,

NOTE.-Compiled largely from published data brought together by the author and his associates for the Maryland Geological Survey.

now the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware, from those of the Lords Baltimore. From the original settlements of the country these lines were in dispute. The original grants to Lord Baltimore in 1632, which included the country to 40° north latitude, embraced territory (now part of Pennsylvania) which was subsequently granted in 1680 to William Penn and a smaller area (now Delaware) settled by the Swedes and Dutch, and later granted to the Duke of York and by him trans

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ferred to Penn in 1682. By a decision of the English courts in 1760 interpreting an earlier agreement greatly to the disadvantage of Lord Baltimore, the boundary line was to run due west from "Cape Henlopen " (Fenwicks Island, 15 miles south of the point now known as Cape Henlopen) to a point midway between the Chesapeake and the Atlantic. From this "middle point" the line was to run northerly, tangent to a circle of 12 miles radius whose center was at Newcastle, Delaware. From the "tangent point," where the tangent line touched the circle, the boundary was to follow the circle to a point due north of the tangent point. From

this point the line was to run due north to the northeast corner, which was to be on the parallel of latitude, 15 miles south of the southernmost part of Philadelphia, as it was at the time of the legal decision in 1760. From this northeast corner the boundary was to extend due west to the western limits.

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Attempts had been made by local surveyors to run the lines during the decade preceding the assignment of the work in 1763 to Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, noted English astronomers and mathematicians, but the difficulties of running such peculiar lines through unbroken forests had been too great for the colonial surveyors with their crude instruments. When Messrs. Mason and Dixon arrived in Philadelphia,

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