MAINE, the name given as early as 1622 to distinguish the main land from the islands. It was called in the Mason and Gorges Patent "the Mayn Land of New England," and in the great charter "Province of Maine." It is one of the New England group of North Atlantic States and the most easterly State of the Union. It is between lat. 43° 4' and 47° 28' N., and be tween long. 66° 57' and 71° 7' W. It is bounded on the north by Quebec and New Brunswick, provinces of Canada, on the east by New Brunswick and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Atlantic and on the west by the State of New Hampshire and the prov ince of Quebec. Its greatest extent is from north to south; its greatest length about 303 miles and its greatest width about 212 miles; area, 33,040 square miles, of which 3,000 square miles are water surface. Maine is as large as all the rest of the New England group lacking 385 square miles, and it is the 37th in size among the States of the Union.
While its northeastern and a portion of its southwestern boundary lines are straight, its others are irregular, especially its coast line, which, fringed by islands, is in dented by numerous hays, giving it a shore length of over 2,000 miles, though a direct line drawn from its two extremities would be hut about a tenth of its real length. This irregular coast line, bold and rugged from its eastern extremity until it reaches Penobscot Bay, be coming lower as it approaches the south, is most picturesque throughout its entire length, much of it being bordered by sandy beaches and thick forests reaching to the water's edge. There are more good harbors on the coast of Maine than on that of any other State on the Atlantic seaboard.
There are two general mountain slopes in Maine, the highest part extending across the Staie from north of the source of the Megallo way River in the west, northeast to Mars Hill. South of the main divide is Mount Katandin, 5385 feet in height; Mount Abraham, 3,387; Saddleback, 4,000, and Mount Blue, 3,900 feet in height, all in Franklin County. Green Moun tain on Mount Desert Island is 1,800 feet and is one of the numerous peaks more or less conical in form, isolated or in clusters, com paratively bare of soil and densely wooded about their bases. There is no long range of mountains in the State.
That portion of the State north of the main divide is drained almost wholly by the Saint John River and its tribu taries, and the' part south of the main divide is drained chiefly by the Androscoggin, Kenne bec, Penobscot and Saint Croix rivers. The
basin of Saint John River has an area of about 7,425 square miles. The head-waters of this river are in the northwestern part of Maine and the eastern part of Quebec, and it flows north by east for some distance past Saint Francis on the north to the extreme north eastern boundary, where it makes a turn and flows generally southeast through New Bruns wick to the Bay of Fundy. The largest Maine tributaries of the Saint John arc the Aroostook and the Allegash. The waters of a large num ber of the lakes of Maine find their outlet through the Saint John. The rivers south of the main divide flow generally south to the ocean. The source of the Kennebec is about 2,000 feet above the sea, of the Penobscot over 2,300 feet, of the Androscoggin about 3,000 feet and of the Saco in the southwest nearly 2,000 feet. They, together with their tributaries, are swiftly flowing streams, in many places passing over rocky beds which form rapids and falls and furnish extensive water powers. From the report of the Maine State Water and Storage Commission it appears that Maine ranks third among the States of the Union in de veloped horse power which is estimated to be in excess of 400,000 horse power. Its storage facilities are estimated at 400,000 horse power more, which, with over 1,000,000 undeveloped horse power, make a total of over 1,800,000 possible water horse power in the State. It is without doubt among the greatest of the State's assets, and has excited the cupidity of men in and out of the State to exploit it for their own enrichment. The so-called Octopus Bill of 1911 was designed to enable these inter ests to transmit this power by converting it into electricity beyond the State's limits, hut at tracting attention aroused so much opposition that it was defeated. It is only by getting con trol of the political machinery of the State that the interests responsible for the measure can accomplish their designs which would result in immense loss to the people of the State. The flow of the tide is so great on the coast that it has been estimated °that with suitable wheels it can be operated 16 hours out of the 24.a There are about 1,620 lakes in Maine, a large number of which are near the sources of the rivers. The surface of the lakes and rivers constitutes nearly one-tenth of the whole area of the State. Moosehead Lake is the largest in the State. (For description of rivers, see sepa rate articles).