63

The mildness and salubrity of its climate, the natural fer-
tility of its virgin soils, the numerous and various sources of
improvement for those that have been worn out by improvident
cultivation; the unequalled advantages of its geographical
position; the high moral and social tone of its population ;
—all tend to make it an object of interest, as well to those
who wish to cultivate the earth for a subsistence, as those,
who tired of city life, or the drudgery of professional labor,
desire to enjoy dignity with leisure in a retirement from
noise and bustle, into the bosom of the country, where the
pleasures of sense may be combined with the higher and
purer social enjoyments, which all sigh for, and few obtain.

This section is blessed with abundant and convenient
water transportation. The Chesapeake bay lies in ma-
jestic grandeur and beauty on the whole extent of its
southwest border, from Elkton, the county town of Cecil, the
most northern county to its most southern county. From
this there runs between the counties, in some cases, intersect-
ing them rivers, creeks, small bays and inlets, navi-
gable for large vessels and affording a landing at almost every
farm. The principal of these are the Pocomoke river, separat-
ing Worcester from Somerset county, the Nauticoke, separat-
ing Somerset from Dorchester, the Choptank, separating Dor-
chester from Talbot, and the latter from Caroline, the Wye
separating Talbot from Queen Anne, the Chester separating
Queen Anne from Kent, and the Sassafrass separating Kent
from Cecil, the most northern of the counties in this sub-divi-
sion. The above is the order of the rivers which seperate
the counties beginning at the southern part of the peninsula.
Its most southern county, Worcester, has for its eastern
boundary the Atlantic ocean, with easy transit to New
York and the world.

These are not "muddy creeks nor estuaries, half land and
half water, running up into a country little elevated above
tide-water," but they are as far as the tide makes bold, deep
arms of the bay, with clear, firm well defined shores, with
high and well drained adjacent land, sometimes gently roll-
ing, frequently presenting high, picturesque bluffs. Above
tide-water these rivers are met by rapid running streams,
of pure, soft fresh water, affording in many instances a suffi-
cient amount of water power for all domestic purposes.

The frontier of this sub-division of the tide-water section
has inland facilities for transportation to domestic markets
and commerce with the world, unequalled in our country, save
in its counterpart on the Western Shore. It has as we have
seen the Chesapeake bay, an avenue to the cities of the District,
and Annapolis, and Baltimore. The Chesapeake and Dela-
ware canal, giving an easy way to the markets of Philadel-
phia and New York, and to each of these cities it is most