MARYLAND, mi:ei-lund. One of the thir teen original States of the American Union. It occupies a middle position on the Atlantic Coast between Pennsylvania and Virginia. being in cluded between the parallels of 37° 53' and 39° 43' 26" north latitude and 75° 4' and 79° 33' west longitude. It is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, the boundary being Mason and Dixon's line, and by Delaware; on the east by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean; on the south and west by Virginia. It is separated from the last-named States by the Potomac River, which is the boundary from its source in a small moun tain stream, to its mouth in a broad estuary entering the Chesapeake Bay. The outline of the State is extremely irregular, as the southern boundary is mainly a winding river and the western part of the State is a long fragment lying between this river and Mason and Dixon's line., while, in addition to this, Chesapeake Bay divides the region into two parts. The extreme length of the northern boundary is 215 miles, with a further extension of 35 miles where the State stretches eastward south of the Delaware to the ocean. The extreme breadth from north to south, near the eastern shore of the Chesa peake. is 128 miles. The total area is 12,210 square miles. of which 2350 square miles are water.
TorocitAritY. The surface of Maryland shows great diversity. it is usual• divided, for purposes of classification, into three regions: the coastal plain, the Piedmont plateau, and the Appalachian region. All are drained by the rivers flowing into the Chesapeake, excepting the northwest corner, ‘vhieh drains toward the Ohio, a narrow strip draining directly into the Atlantic, and a fragment at the extreme northeast, draining into Christian Creek and the Delaware.
The coastal plain embraces that part of Mary land lying In the east of a line passing from Washington to Baltimore, Havre de (Iracc, and Wilmington. It includes more than half the land area of the State, and is divided by Chesapeake Bay into what is commonly called the 'eastern shore' and the 'western shore' or Southern Maryland. The 'eastern shore' is low and level: only in the north does it reach 100 feet, and most of it is less than 25 feet above the sea. The 'western shore' is :ind rises to 300 feet near the Distriet of Columbia and again near Baltimore. Chesapeake Bay has many islands, and the entire .Itlantie Coast is made up of a reef-like. sandy island, inelosing the Chin Ndeague and Assatengoe bays. The eastern shore is drained by the Poeomoke, Nanticoke, Chop tank. and Chester rivers, and by some
insignificant streams. The western shore is drained in the most part by the Potomac, the Patuxent, the Patapsco, and the Gunpowder.
The most conspicuous feature of the Atlantic Plain of is Chesapeake Bay, which has about two-thirds of its 200 miles of length within the State. It is from 10 to 40 miles wide and its numerous estuaries cut the plain in every direction and reach to the eastern edge of the Piedmont Plateau. The bay is navigable for the largest ships, and its numerous arms furnish a large number of fine harbors. The large area of sheltered, shallow, inland water gives an excel lent fishing ground and an opportunity for oyster gathering and oyster culture scarcely equaled elsewhere in the world.
The Piedmont Plateau extends from the edge of the Atlantic Plain to the Catoctin Mountain, the first range of the Appalachian system. This region is about 65 miles wide at the north and 40 miles wide at the south. Most of the surface is broken and hilly, ascending with complicated drainage systems to Parr's Ridge in Carroll County. Between Parr's Ridge and the Catoctin 31ountain is the comparatively level Frederick Valley, drained by the Monocacy River, flowing southward into the Potomac. Near the mouth of the Monocacy, the Sugar Loaf Mountain (1250 feet) rises abruptly from the plain. From the Catoctin Mountain to the western boundary of the State, the Appalachian region spreads a suc cession of valleys, separated by nearly parallel northeast and southwest mountain ranges, and all draining into the Potomac. The Blue Ridge, 2400 feet high at Quirauk, near the Pennsylvania line, crosses the State to Weverton on the Poto mac, and is the eastern limit of the Great or Hagerstown Valley. This valley is bounded on the west by the North Mountain, between which and Cumberland is the Allegheny Ridge, a com plex chain of long, narrow, very level mountain ridges, separated by narrow valleys, beginning at an elevation of about 500 feet at the Potomac. Just west of Cumberland rises Dan's Mountain (2882 feet). To the west of it is the Alleghany Plateau, giving the elevation of 2000 feet or more to all of to the west, except the immediate valleys of the Potomac, Savage, and Youghiogheny rivers. Much of the plateau is above 2500 feet, and the highest mountains, the Savage and its extension, the Backbone Mountain, exceed 3000 feet in elevation.
For FLORA and FAUNA, see those topics under UNITED STATES.