MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY                            499

of the Liberty District, or Election District No. 8; then
with said Liberty and Mount Pleasant District line to a
point on said line at the southeastern corner of James
Boane's land; then with the Woodsborough District line
to a point where the said line intersects the Bostian's
Mill public road at a point near Charles Nolley's residence;
then in a straight line from said public road to a point on
the Woodsborough and Frederick turnpike road known as
Smith's School House; then in a straight line from the
place of beginning .... to be known as Walkersville
District."

GARRETT COUNTY.

Garrett County, although foreshadowed in the Constitution of 1850,
is the youngest of the major political divisions of the State, having heen
erected by Act of Assembly in 1872. According to this Act provision
was made for taking a vote of the people in the fall of 1872 as to
whether or not they would erect a new county. The section of the Act
defining the boundaries decreed

That all that part of Allegany county lying south and west of a line
beginning at the summit of Big Back Bone, or Savage Mountain, where that
mountain is crossed by Mason's and Dixon's line, running thence by a
straight line to the middle of Savage River where it empties into the Potomac
River; thence by a straight line to the nearest point or boundary of the
State of West Virginia; then with the said boundary to the Fairfax Stone
shall be a new county, to be called the county of Garrett.

The boundaries defined by this Act consist of three straight lines on
the west, north, and east, and the Potomac River on the south. It
would, therefore, seem that no difficulties could arise regarding the
boundaries of Garrett County and yet few counties within the State have
had as much trouble with the determination of their boundary lines dur-
ing a single generation as has fallen to Garrett County in its 30 years
of existence. The, difficulties have been almost entirely with the eastern
and western boundaries, the northern and southern offering little occa-
sion for controversy.

Soon after" Garrett County was set off from Allegany an attempt was
made to mark the line of separation. The County Surveyor of Allegany
County ran a trial line by the compass from the mouth of Savage River