OHI'O ( corruption of Iroquois Ohionhiio, beautiful river), popularly called the 'BUCKEYE STATE.' A north central State of the United States, lying between 3S° 27' and 41° 57° north latitude, and between SO° 34' and S4° 49' west longitude. It is bounded on the north by Michi gan and Lake Erie. on the east by Pennsylvania, on the southeast by West Virginia, on the south west by Kentucky, and on the west by Indiana. Its southeastern and southwestern boundaries are formed by the Ohio River, while the others, with the exception of Lake Erie. are straight lines. The State measures 215 miles from east to west. and 210 miles from north to south. Its area is 41,060 square miles. of which 40.760 square miles or 26.086.400 acres are land-surface. It ranks thirty-second in size among the States.
The surface is a rolling plain sloping gradually northward toward Lake Erie and southward toward the Ohio River from a low and flat ridge which forms the divide be tween the two water systems. This ridge crosses the State in an irregular line from near the northeastern corner to about the middle of the western boundary. keeping much nearer to the lake than to the Ohio River. The elevation of the State above sea-level varies from slightly less than 500 feet to somewhat more than 1000 feet.
The greatest altitude, 1540 feet, is reached near Bellefontaine in the west-central part. There are no marked irregularities in the surface except the trenches cut by the rivers, the Ohio River valley being lined with bluffs which in some places are 600 feet high. As noted above, the State is divided into two drainage basins. The northern is drained into Lake Erie by a number (Si streams which are all short except the Maumee, which flows through the northwestern part of the State from Indiana. The southern and much larger slope is drained into the Ohio River, some of whose tributaries in this State are of considerable size. These are the Muskingum, llocking, Scioto, and Little and Great Miami. The Muskingum is the longest river flowing wholly within the. State, and is navigable for nearly 100 miles. The Ohio itself is navigable throughout its length on the bound ary, a distance of 436 miles. The other rivers of the State are chiefly important for water power. some of them being swift.