MAINE 



3600 



MAINE 



with a population of 62,161, is the largest city 

 and principal seaport; Lewiston, Bangor, Bid- 

 deford, Auburn, Bath, Augusta, the capital, 

 Waterville and Sanford are other important 

 towns. Each is described in these volumes. 



Largely owing to the proximity of the old 

 French provinces of Canada, the number of 

 Roman Catholics in Maine is greater than the 

 total number of Protestants; among the latter 

 the Baptists are most numerous. The Congre- 

 gationalists, Methodists and Episcopalians are 

 other prominent denominations. 



Education. There have been many changes 

 in the school system of Maine. In 1800, while 

 still a part of Massachusetts, the district sys- 

 tem was established. The first school law of 

 the state was passed in 1821, and in 1846 a 

 state board of education was created. This 

 board was superseded in 1852 by county com- 

 missioners of education, appointed by the gov- 

 ernor, and two years later the system was again 

 changed and a state superintendent was ap- 

 pointed. County supervisors were again t tried 

 in 1869, but since 1872 the town system of 

 common schools has been in effect, the town 

 superintendent and board of education being 

 under the direction of the state superintendent, 

 who is appointed by the governor. Education, 

 free to all from five to twenty-one years of 

 age, in 1901 was made compulsory. 



Normal schools have been established at 

 Farmington, Castine, Gorham, Presque Isle 

 and Fort Kent. The Madwaska Training 

 School is located at Fort Kent. The University 

 of Maine, near Orono, was founded in 1868 as 

 the State College of Agriculture and Mechan- 

 ical Arts, but in 1897 was given its present 

 name (see MAINE, UNIVERSITY OF). Bowdoin 

 College, at Brunswick, established in 1794, fa- 

 mous as the alma mater of Longfellow and 

 Hawthorne and others of New England's great 

 men; Bates College at Lewiston and Colby 

 College at Waterville are prominent institu- 

 tions of higher education. 



Although educational advantages have long 

 existed in Maine the illiteracy is 4.1 per cent, 

 owing largely to the sparsely-settled French 

 portion of the state. The illiteracy among 

 native whites in Maine in 1910 was only 2.4 

 per cent. 



The Land. The rolling state of Maine, with 

 its hundreds of forest-bordered lakes, its turbu- 

 lent rivers and its sea coast fringed with deep 

 fiords and harbors, and bordered with hundreds 

 of islands, is one of the most beautiful sections 

 of Eastern America. The interior is generally 



hilly. A continuation of the Appalachians, in 

 the form of a plateau, entering the state on the 

 west at an elevation of 2,000 feet, crosses 

 Maine in a northeasterly direction, gradually 

 dropping to an elevation of 600 feet at its east- 

 ern end. A range of hills rises northward from 

 the coast, and another extends from east to 

 west toward the interior. The land slopes in 



OUTLINE MAP OF MAINE 

 Showing the boundaries, navigable rivers, prin- 

 cipal cities, mineral deposits, largest lakes and 

 the highest point of land in the state. 



the north to the Saint John River and in the 

 south to the coast. The mountains of Maine 

 are not high, and consist largely of isolated 

 peaks. Mount Katahdin, in the central part of 

 the state, the heart of the Moose country, has 

 an elevation of 5,385 feet; Mount Abraham in 

 the west, Mount Kineo, rising abruptly above 

 Moosehead Lake; Mount Bigelow and Mount 

 Blue, are other high peaks whose wooded re- 

 gions and swift streams are famous hunting 

 and fishing grounds. 



Lakes and Rivers. There are more than 1,600 

 lakes in Maine; these are rock basins scoured 

 out by the glaciers that once covered the state 

 (see GLACIAL PERIOD). Most of these lakes are 

 in the elevated plateau region. Moosehead 

 Lake, the largest, has an area of 120 square 

 miles and is the greatest inland body of water 

 in New England. Rangeley Lg&es, ninety- 



