greater rapidity, and by 1850 there were 259 miles of railroads within the state. In 1909 this had been increased to 1394.19 miles. Beside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad the other important lines are the various railroads under the control or management of the Pennsylvania system, the Western Maryland, the Maryland and Pennsylvania, and the Norfolk and Western railroads, and the two interurban electric railways-the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis, and the Baltimore and Annapolis Short Line. FOREIGN COMMERCE. The foreign commerce of Maryland is confined to the port of Baltimore. The number of foreign vessels entered in the year 1910 was 865, and in the year 1914 was 1037. The total value of the

imports in the former year was $32,377,480, and in the latter $29,555,672. The number of foreign vessels cleared in the year 1910 was 878, and in the year 1914 was 1034. The total value of the exports in the former year was $74,067,406, and in the latter $106,822,295. The most important imports in the order of their value are pig iron, cork manufactures, iron ore, nitrate of soda, bananas, muriate of potash, toys and dolls, manganese ore, fertilizers, and burlaps. The most important exports are grain, copper, tobacco, cotton, flour, iron and steel manufactures, coal, agricultural implements, lards, meats, etc., lumber and lumber manufactures.

REVENUE, DEBTS, AND TAXATION. The total assessed value of state property for state levy in 1915 was $1,274,824.811, of which $947,648.60

is subject to the full state tax of .32 cents on the $100, the balance including securities and savings deposits being subject to lower fixed rates. The amount raised in this manner is used to meet the public school tax, the maintenance of roads tax, and interest on the various loans. The other expenses of the state are met from licenses, fees, etc.

The total funded debt of the state on September 30, 1915, was $22,685,880. As an offset to this the state held stocks, bonds, and cash to the credit of the sinking funds of a value of $6,210,589, leaving a net debt of $16,595,291. Among the assets of the state is a perpetual annuity of the Northern Central Railroad Company of $90,000, which has a value of $2,000,000 and upwards which would still further reduce the net debt. The disbursements of the state for the year ending September 30, 1915, amounted to $11,263,751.09, and there was on that date in the treasury after deducting the amounts due to sinking funds $846,900.96. The state, however, owed to "dedicated funds" $1,018,769.11, and to unpaid balances of appropriations $1,274,687.70, leaving a total deficiency on that date of $1,446,555.81.

There is nothing in the constitution of the state limiting the power of the General Assembly to authorize bond issues either by the state or by its municipalities, except that "the credit of the state shall not in any manner be given, or loaned to, or in aid of, any individual, association or corporation, nor shall the General Assembly have the power in any mode to involve the state in the construction of works of internal improvement, nor in granting any aid thereto, which shall involve the faith or credit of the state."

An Act of Assembly in 1914 exempts from taxation for 1914 and thereafter all bonds or other obligations hereafter to be issued by the state or any county, city or municipal corporation, or other political subdivision, and all such securities heretofore issued by any county or municipal corporation which have been sold under terms rendering such county, city or municipal corporation liable for the state tax thereon.

The total assessed value of Baltimore City property for city levy in 1915 was $818,102,213. The full city tax rate was $1.92 per $100, the

suburban rate $1.28, the rural rate $0.65, the securities rate $0.30, and the savings bank rate $0.183. The total appropriations for the year were $23,791,502.64. The total funded debt issued to January 1, 1915, amounted to $87,467,679.50.

GEOLOGY

The State of Maryland is so situated as to display, in spite of its comparatively small size, a remarkable sequence of geological formations. The most ancient rocks which made up the earth's crust as well as those still in the process of deposition are here found, while between these wide limits there is hardly an important geological epoch which is not represented. It is doubtful whether any other state in the Union contains as full a history of the earth's past.

All of the oldest rocks which are to-day entirely without, or with only slight traces of former life, are referred to the first great division of geological history called Archean Time. These oldest rocks are largely crystalline in character, so that there can be but little chance of encountering organic forms, even had they once existed in the strata. Even the least. altered deposits, although they have afforded a few scattered remains of archaic forms at certain points, contain nothing more than the merest traces of the organisms of this early time.

When, however, life does once appear in all its variety, it is well-nigh the same in all the older rocks. In the most widely separated localities the same types recur in rocks of the same age, and this furnishes us with the key to the succession of deposits. From the time when the oldest fossil-bearing stratum was deposited until now, the story of life-progress and development is told by the rocks with sufficient clearness to be unmistakable. Local differences of conditions have probably always prevailed, as they do now, but the same types of organisms have always lived at the same time over the entire globe, so their remains serve as sufficient criteria for the correlation of the strata which contain them. The sequence of lifeforms once made out gives us, for the whole earth, the means for fixing the order of deposits even when this is most profoundly disarranged by foldings of the strata into mountains, or by other earth movements.

Geologists distinguish three principal divisions in the history of life as read in the record of the rocks. During the earliest of these great timedivisions, archaic forms of life flourished-uncouth fishes, crustaceans, mollusks, and tree-ferns-most of them very unlike those now extant. On this account this is known as the period of most ancient life, or Paleozoic Time. To this succeeded a long lapse of ages when enormous reptiles predominated, associated with other types more like those that now inhabit the globe. To this is given the name of middle life, or Mesozoic Time. Finally living things began to assume the form and appearance with which we are familiar, so that this last grand timedivision, whch includes the present, is designated as the period of recent life, or Cenozoic Time.

Each of these three grand divisions of geologic time is in its turn separated into shorter subdivisions called Periods, characterized by their own peculiar types of life; and the several periods themselves are divided into Epochs, which vary more or less in character according to the region where they are developed. For this reason the chronological and stratigraphical divisions require an independent nomenclature, although this duality of geological classification can in most instances be readily adjusted to the contingencies of each district. The stratigraphical divisions are usually designated by local terms, and are known as Formations. In Maryland there are representatives not merely of the great timedivisions, but of each subordinate period, as well as of many of the epochs. This may be best appreciated by referring to the accompanying table of geological formations.