MASSACHUSETTS 



3683 



MASSACHUSETTS 



MASSACHUSETTS 



SCALE OF MILES 

 5 10 16 20 25 30 

 Navigalle River* 

 Canals =-_ 

 Gloucester 



OUTLINE MAP OF MASSACHUSETTS 



Showing the boundaries of the state, the navigable rivers, principal cities, location of minerals, 

 quarrying centers, and the highest point of land in the state. 



ley, Parkman, Mann, Phillips, Hawthorne, Mrs. 

 Stowe, not to mention many of scarcely inferior 

 fame. Their part in the history of America has 

 been little less important than the services of 

 Massachusetts statesmen, foremost among whom 

 were John Adams, John Quincy Adams and 

 Daniel Webster. 



Coast and Surface. The sea coast is very 

 irregular, and is dotted with scores of islands, 

 many of them very small, but some, as Nan- 

 tucket, Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth 

 Islands, of considerable size. There are numer- 

 ous excellent harbors, Boston ranking first, and 

 New Bedford, on Buzzard's Bay, second, but 

 there is a long stretch of low coast with many 

 "spits" of sand stretching south from Boston 

 and all along the Cape Cod peninsula, and here 

 good ports are few. To the north of Boston the 

 shore line is rocky and picturesque, and there 

 most of the harbors are to be found. The most 

 conspicuous feature of the coast region is the 

 peninsula of Cape Cod, which juts into the sea 

 like a long arm bent at the elbow, thirty-five 

 miles from shoulder to elbow and thirty from 

 elbow to hand. 



All of this eastern section is low and level, 

 with a gradual, undulating rise toward the west 

 and northwest; the rest of the state is divided 



into three chief surface regions. Just west of this 

 sandy lowland is a plateau about 1,100 feet in 

 height a beautiful region with stream-carved 

 valleys and low, rounded hills. Then comes the 

 Connecticut Valley, broad and fertile, from the 

 level of which rise here and there hills which 

 reach a height of 1,200 feet or more. Mount 

 Tom, Mount Holyoke and other lower peaks 

 are particularly interesting to the geologist be- 

 cause they show so clearly how the occasional 

 streaks of hard rock resisted when the river was 

 cutting its valley through the soft shales and 

 sandstones (see EROSION). In the extreme west 

 is the Berkshire country, one of the loveliest 

 regions in the United States, crossed from north 

 to south by extensions of the Green Mountains 

 known as the Berkshire Hills. Long hill ridges, 

 wooded to the top, are intersected by deep 

 valleys in which lie so many clear blue lakes 

 that the section is called the Lake Region of 

 America. The summits present v a remarkably 

 even sky line, but some of them rise far above 

 their fellows, Saddle Mountain, or Greylock, in 

 the northern part of the state, reaching a 

 height of 3,538 feet, the highest point in Mas- 

 sachusetts. This beautiful scenic section is a 

 favorite resort region, and has many little vil- 

 lages wiiv'h m the winter are shut away from 



