MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY                          509

HOWARD COUNTY.

The existence of Howard County as a distinct political unit dates
from the Convention of 1850 although its outline is defined by the
Acts of 1838, Chapter 22, which separated Howard District as a distinct
part of Anne Arundel County. According to this Act the boundaries
were to be as follows:

" Beginning .... at the intersection of the west shore of Deep Run with
the southern shore of the Patapsco River, at or near Ellicott's furnace, and
running southerly with said Deep Run, until it reaches the Baltimore and
Washington Rail Road [now the Washington Branch of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad]; and thence with the said rail road and including the same
until it reaches the southwestern line of Anne Arundel county on the big
Patuxent River " and thence with the said river, and the lines of said county
until it intersects the northwestern point of said county, and running thence
with the lines of Carroll and Baltimore counties to the place of beginning.

The territory now included within Howard County was a part of
Baltimore County from 1659 to 1726. During the interval between the
erection of Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties the territory was
under the jurisdiction of the former. Subsequent to 1838 the relations
with Anne Arundel County were rather loose. The progress of settle-
ment of the region was upward along the valleys of the Patapsco and
Patuxent rivers and more slowly upon the divides between, the frontier
line being a crescent-like curve which moved slowly to the northwest
from the original settlement along the Bay. During the interval from
1659 to some time later than 1727 the inhabitants along the valley of the
Patapsco and above Warfield's Eidge, the beginning of the Piedmont,
were residents of Baltimore County even though their homes and lands
were subsequently in Anne Arundel. By an Act passed July 25, 1726,
the land lying on the south side of the Patapsco River was taken from
Baltimore County according to the following bounds:

" From the Head thereof, and from thence, bounding on the south side of
the main Falls, being the Southernmost great Branch of the said River, and
running as the said Branch runs, to the first main Fork of the said Falls."

The relative geographic positions of the heads of the Patapsco and
Patuxent [Snowden] rivers are such that no line run due north from the
head of the latter would intersect the former. The contemporaneous
opinion in 1726 believed this to be possible, the idea obtaining that the