All along the coast-line there are capacious and well-protected harbours, Casco, Penobscot, Frenchman's, Machias and Passama quoddy bays being especially noteworthy. After the subsidence came another period of uplift, possibly still in progress. This uplift has brought up submarine deposits of sand, etc., to form little coastal plains at some points along the coast, providing good land for settlement and clay for brick and pottery. Evidence of this uplift is found in old beach lines now above sea-level.
The principal river systems of Maine are the St. John on the north slope, and the Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Androscoggin and the Saco on the south slope. The Penobscot, Kennebec, An droscoggin and Saco have numerous falls and rapids.
The climate of the state is moist and, for the latitude, cold. The precipitation is about 42.5in. annually and is distributed very evenly throughout the year, io to 'lin. of rain or its equivalent in snow falling each season. The snowfall varies from about 6oin. on the coast to more than moin. on the north slope, the average for the State being about 83in. The summers are short, there being only about four and a half months between frosts, even in the southern section. The heat of summer is tempered by the sea and cool north winds, the mean summer temperature being about 62° F. The mean winter temperature is approximately F, and the mean annual temperature for the entire State is 42° F, that for the north slope being about 5° lower than that for the south slope. Although the temperature remains rather steadily below the freezing point for at least three months of the year, many of the harbours remain unobstructed for the tides and the prevailing off-shore winds break up and drive off the ice.
amendments were adopted; in 1875, after nine more were added, the 21 were incorporated in the text ; and between 1875 and 1936, 36 more were adopted. The governor and auditor are the only executive officers of the State elected by popular vote. There is no lieutenant-governor, the president of the Senate succeeding to the office of governor in case of a vacancy; but there is a council of seven members elected by the legislature (not more than one from any one senatorial district), whose sole function is to advise the governor. His power of appoint ment is unusually extensive, and the advice and consent of the council (instead of that of the senate as in other States) are re quired for his appointments. He appoints all judges, coroners and notaries public, besides all other civil and military officers for whose appointment neither the Constitution nor the laws pro vide otherwise. The seven members of the council, the secretary of State, the treasurer, the attorney-general and the commissioner of agriculture are elected biennially by a joint ballot of the two houses of the legislature, which also elects, one every two years, the three State assessors, whose term is six years.
The legislature meets on the first Wednesday in January in odd numbered years, at Augusta, the capital. It is composed of a senate of 33 members and a house of representatives of 151 members. Members of each house are elected for a term of two years: senators by counties on the basis of one for each 30,000 inhabitants and each fraction additional, and representatives according to the population of towns of 1,500 and over, town ships and plantations having less than 1,500 being grouped together to select a representative. There is a new reapportion ment for the senate and the house every ten years. In September 1908 a constitutional amendment was adopted providing for referendum and initiative by the people. Any bill proposed in the legislature or passed by it must be referred to popular vote before becoming law, if there is a referendum petition therefor signed by I 0,0o0 voters ; and a petition signed by 12,000 voters initiates new legislation.