MARYLAND, one of the 13 original States, was seventh to ratify the United States Constitution (25 April 1788). Situated on the Atlantic Coast, it extends from lat. 37° 53' to 43' N. and from long. 75° 4' to 79° 33' W. It is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania and Delaware, on the east by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Virginia and West Virginia and on the west by West Virginia. The entire course of the Potomac River lies in Maryland. The extreme length of the State from east to west is 240 miles and its extreme width from north to south is 125 miles. At its narrowest point near Han cock, the width is only about three miles. The State's shape is roughly that of two triangles meeting at this narrow point. The total area is 12,210 square miles, of which 2,350 square miles are covered by water, leaving 9,880 square miles of land. Annapolis is the capital and Baltimore is the chief commercial, financial and industrial centre. The State is subdivided into 23 counties, in addition to Baltimore city. For polling purposes the counties are subdivided into election districts, and there are about 100 incorporated municipalities, the largest of which are Cumberland, Hagerstown and Frederick.
Topography.-- Maryland possesses great variety of physiographic features. The State is divided by the Chesapeake Bay into two parts, known as the Eastern and Western Shores. The Eastern Shore is the smaller divi sion and is a level region, forming a part of the Coastal Plain, the land .rising toward the north, in 'Cecil County, to the height of about 100 feet, while in Worcester County, at the south, the highest elevation is only about 25 feet. The land is broken by rivers which are navigable, as far as tidewater extends, for they are really tidal estuaries, rather than rivers.
Steamboats ply upon some of these streams, such as the Elk, the Sassafras, the Chester, the Choptank, the Nanticoke, the Wieomico and the Pocomoke, and the rivers frequently serve as county boundaries.
At the head of the Chesapeake Bay, the Susquehanna River enters it, after draining a large section of New York and Pennsylvania; but owing to rapids, the stream is not navigable. The counties bordering upon the western shore of the bay are also for the most part in the Coastal Plain and have similar characteristics to those of the Eastern Shore, although the river banks are higher and often comprise 'cliffs' of earth, and the land is of slightly greater elevation and is more rolling. The
average elevation is about 125 feet. The bay exercises a genial influence upon the climate of the surrounding region. The winters are usu ally neither long nor severe. The part of the State lying between the bay and the Potomac River is known as southern Maryland. The Western Shore is also divided by rivers: the Gunpowder, the Patapsco, the Magothy, the South, the Patuxent and the Potomac. These rivers differ from those of the Eastern Shore only in that most of their upper courses run into hilly country. The soil on both sides of the bay is either sandy or a light loam, which is favorable to the production of cereals and tobacco, and in which all kinds of fruits and vegetables thrive.
From the Coastal Plain the land rises into the Piedmont region to a height of from 300 to 700 feet toward the Blue Ridge. This Pied mont region is undulating in its surface and is well watered by streams which provide con siderable water power. Some of these streams empty into the bay, such as the Gunpowder, the Patapsco, the Patuxent; and some are tributaries of the Potomac, such as the Mon ocacy, the Great Pipe Creek, the Antietam and the Conococheague. Some of the smaller streams, such as Jones' Falls, were called Falls by the early settlers, because of their rapid descent from the uplands. Several ridges, with an elevation of about 800 feet, cross this sec tion, the most important of these being Parr's Ridge, and they divide the country into valleys which are rich and fertile. Beyond the Blue Ridge, the western part of Maryland forms a part of the Appalachian Mountain region, and is traversed by the Allegheny Mountains in Allegany and Garrett counties. Some of the peaks of the Blue Ridge are from 2,000 to 2,400 feet high, and the summits of the Alleghanies vary from 1,500 to 3,500 feet above sea-level. The highest point in the State is Backbone Mountain in Garrett County.