in 1763, they found that the local surveyors had already determined the "middle point" and the "tangent point," and had run a provisional line as far as the northeast corner. From the time of their arrival in November, 1763, until December, 1767, Mason and Dixon were engaged in redetermining the earlier work and in running and marking the northern boundary which they continued to Dunkard's Creek, some miles beyond the limits of Maryland, where they were stopped by the Indians. Along the greater portion of the lines surveyed by them, each mile was marked by a stone monument (mounds of stone surrounding wooden posts were used west of Sideling Hill) which had on four out of five mile-stones the letter "P" engraved on the northern side, and the letter "M" on the southern side; while at each fifth mile was a stone of the same size, known as a "crown-stone," with the coat-of-arms of the Penns cut on the northern face and with that of Lord Baltimore on the southern. These stones came from the quarries on the Isle of Portland in England. Some of the original monuments remained in good condition, but many had become dilapidated or had been removed in the more than 100 years since the earlier survey, when the legislatures of Maryland and Pennsylvania made provision in 1900 for the relocating and remarking of the line, and this work was completed in 1904. This line, known as the Mason and Dixon Line, became famous in the great controversy preceding the Civil War, as the boundary between the free and slave-holding states, and has been regarded as the division line between the North and the South.

The southern boundary, likewise in dispute since Colonial days, was permanently settled in 1874, as far as the Maryland-Virginia portion was concerned, by a board of commissioners appointed by the states of Maryland and Virginia. According to this agreement the boundary follows the low-water line on the right bank of the Potomac River to Smith's Point at its mouth, thence northeasterly across Chesapeake Bay to the southern end of Smith's Island, and thence to the middle of Tangier Sound. Here the boundary runs south 10° 30' west, until it intersects a straight line connecting Smith's Point and Watkins Point, and thence eastward through the center of Pocomoke Sound and Pocomoke River

until it reaches the westward prolongation of the old Scarborough and Calvert line surveyed in 1668, which it follows to the Atlantic Ocean.

There is still some controversy as to the exact location of some of the boundary marks, especially in Pocomoke Sound, where the oyster interests

of Maryland and Virginia conflict. The Maryland-West Virginia portion of the boundary also follows the right bank of the Potomac River and its north branch.

The western boundary of the state, according to the original charter, was to run due north from the "first fountain" of the Potomac River. The North Branch was early regarded as the main stream, but later surveys have shown the South Branch to be longer than the North Branch. The "Fairfax Stone," planted on October 17, 1746, and supposed to have been placed at the westernmost source of the North Branch, has been shown in later years to be on a tributary of that stream, the real source being about one mile farther west, which was marked by the State of Maryland in 1897 with a monument known as the "Potomac Stone.” very crooked line was run by Deakins in 1787 from the Fairfax Stone to the northern boundary line. Subsequently in 1859 a straight line was run by Lieutenant Michler, of the the U. S. Army, from the same point. In 1897 the State of Maryland ran a straight line from the Potomac Stone. The questions at issue were decided on May 27, 1912, by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the Deakins line of 1787, which thus becomes the legal western boundary of the state, separating it from West Virginia.

A

SIZE. The extreme width of the state from east to west is 240 miles, and the extreme length from north to south 125 miles, the latter, however, narrowing toward the west where it becomes scarcely more than 11⁄2 miles at Hancock. Beyond this point it again broadens, although narrowing again at Cumberland to 5 miles. The total area within the limits of the state is estimated at 12,327 square miles, of which 9941 square miles are land. The remaining 2386 square miles are water, distributed as follows: Chesapeake Bay proper, 1203; estuaries of the Bay, 1023; Chincoteague Bay, 93.

Maryland ranks forty-first among the states in area. It is about onefourth the size of Pennsylvania, which borders it upon the north; one-half the size of West Virginia, its western neighbor; somewhat less than onethird the size of Virginia, which lies to the south; and about six times the

size of Delaware, its neighbor on the east. It is only about one-twentieth as large as Texas, the largest state of the Union.

POSITION. A comparison of the position of Baltimore, the largest city of the state, with some of the more prominent cities of this country and of the world, shows that several are very nearly on the same latitude, the following being within 1 degree or less: Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Springfield, St. Louis, Topeka, Denver, San Francisco, Lisbon, Palermo, Athens, Peking, Constantinople, and Tokyo. In longitude it

differs but a few degrees from Ottawa, Canada, on the north and Santiago de Cuba, the Isthmus of Panama, Quito, and Lima on the south.

POPULATION.-Maryland has a population of 1,295,346, according to the census of 1910, which gives it the rank of twenty-seventh among the states. Of this population 1,062,639 are whites and 232,250 are colored. The average colored population for the state is 17.9 per cent. In 12 of the counties it is in excess of 25 per cent, the maximum being reached in Charles County which has 52.3 per cent.

Native whites of native parentage comprise 59.2 per cent of the entire population; native whites of foreign or mixed parentage 14.8 per cent;

and foreign-born whites 8 per cent of the total population. The foreignborn white population came chiefly from Germany, Russia, and Ireland. The number of males 21 years of age and over are 367,908, of which 82.5 per cent are white and 17.4 per cent colored. Males of military age, 18 to 44, number 272,373. The number of persons above 10 years of age who are unable to read and write is 73,397, or 7.2 per cent of the population above this age, of which 23.4 per cent are among the colored and 11.9 per cent among foreign-born whites, and 2.6 per cent among native whites.

The total number of dwellings in Maryland is 253,805, with a total number of families of 274,824. The average number of persons per dwelling is 5.1, and the average persons per family 4.7.