8

try justice in withholding this from the public. To obviate
this in a slight degree is the object of the following pages
and if the writer can ever in a slight degree promote abroad
a proper appreciation of our State, his highest aims will be
attained.

MARYLAND, the most southern part of that division of the
United States of America, formerly called and the "Middle
States," now the Border States is situate between the latitude
38° and 39° 43' north, and between the longitudes 75° 03'
and 79° 32' west from Greenwich, or 2° 31' west and 1° 58'
east from Washington. Its outline is extremely irregular,
except on the north and east, where Mason and Dixon's line
constitutes the frontier, and separates Maryland from the ad-
joining States of Pennsylvania and Delaware. On the south
the Potomac river, with a winding channel and a circuitous
general course, is its limitary stream, and divides it from
Virginia. The main body of the eastern section is bounded
by Delaware State line; but a narrow strip, projecting east-
ward to the sea, intrudes itself between that State and the
Virginia portion of Chesapeake peninsula. The periphery of
the State is estimated to be about 766 miles: namely, from
the mouth of Potomac river to the source of its north branch,
320 miles; thence north to the Pennsylvania line, 35 miles;
thence along that line eastward, 199 miles; thence along
the west and south line of Delaware, 122 miles; thence along
the Atlantic Ocean, 32 miles; thence across the peninsula to
the mouth of Pocomoke river, 20 miles; and directly west to the
confluence of Potomac river with Chesapeake Bay, the place of
beginning, about 38 miles. Within this outline is contained
a superficiei of 13,959 square miles; but of this extent only
9,674 square miles are land, the residue being covered by the
waters of Chesapeake Bay and its numerous inlets and bays,
The State is divided into twenty-one counties of which eight
lies on the Eastern and thirteen on the Western Shore.
The Chesapeake Bay divides Maryland into two unequal parts
called the Eistern Shore composed of the counties of Cecil,
Kent, Queen Anne's, Caroline, Talbot, Dorchester, Somerset
and Worcester, this is the order in which they are located
from north to south, and the Western Shore composed of the
counties of Allegany, Washington, Frederick, Carroll, Balti-
more, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Anne Arundel, Prince
George's, Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's.

There are other and natural divisions of Maryland which in
considering her material condition it may be convenient to re-
recognize; these are the tide-water, the blue-ride, and the
mountain division of Maryland. The latter part comprising
the county of Allegany. The blue-ridge division, compris-
ing all that part of Maryland not on tide-water, nor the moun-
tain division. The tide-water portion includes all that part of
the State not indicted by the two former. A line from the