2 



NATURAL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



PartI. 



BOUNDARIES. 



EXTENT. AREA. 



DIVISIONS. 



cording to the latter, the 45th parallel lies 

 a little to the southward of the line pre- 

 viously established, but it is not yet finally 

 settled. The eastern boundary was es- 

 tablished by a decree of George III, July 

 20th, 17G4, whicli declared the western 

 bank of the Connecticut river to be the 

 western boundary of New Hampshire. 

 The southern boundary is derived from 

 a royal decree of Marcli 4th, 1740, and 

 was surveyed by Richard Hazen, in Feb- 

 ruary and March, 1741. This line, which 

 was the divisional line between Massachu- 

 Betts and New Hampshire, was to run due 

 west from a point three miles to the north- 

 ward of Patucket falls, till it reached the 

 province of New York. It was run by 

 the compass, and ten degrees allowed for 

 westerty variation of the magnetic needle. 

 This being too great an allowance, the 

 line crossed tlie Connecticut river 2' 

 57" to the nortJiward of a due west line. 

 In consequence of this error, New Hamp- 

 shire lost 51t,ci73 acres, and Vermont 13:3,- 

 897 acres, and the south line of the state 

 is not parallel with the north line. The 

 western boundary was settled by the gov- 

 ernments of Vermont and New York at 

 the close of their controversy, in 1790. 

 This line passes along the western boun- 

 daries of the townships of Pownal, Ben- 

 nington, Shaftsbury, Arlington, Sandgate, 

 Rupert, Pawlet, Wells and Poultney, to 

 Poultney river ; thence along the middle 

 of the deepest channel of said river. East 

 bay and lake Champlain to the 4.5th de- 

 gree of north latitude, passing to the east- 

 ward of the islands called the FourBrotli- 

 ers, and to the westward of Grand Isle 

 and IslelaMotte. The portion of this line 

 between the southwest corner of the state 

 and Pdultney river, was surveyed in 1813 

 and 1614, and the report and plan of the 

 survey are in the oifice of the Secretary 

 of State at Montpelicr. 



Extent and Area. — The length of Ver- 

 mont from north to south is 157^ miles, 

 and the average width from east to west 

 57^ miles, which gives an area of 9,0-56:^ 

 square miles, or 5,79.5,060 acres. The 

 length of the north line of the state is 90 

 miles, and of the south line 41 miles, but, 

 on account of the great bend of the Con- 

 necticut to the westward, the mean width 

 of the state is considerable less than 

 the mean between these two lines, as 

 above stated. The width of the state 

 from Barnet to Charlotte through Mont- 

 pelier, which is 50 miles nearer to the 

 northern than to the southern boundary, 

 is only about 60 miles. On account of 

 the irregularities in the western and east- 

 ern boundaries, both these lines are lon- 

 ger than the mean length of the state, the 



former being about 175 miles, and the lat- 

 ter, following the course of the Connecti- 

 cut, 215 miles.* The state is divided into 

 two equal parts by the parallel of 44d. 

 9m. north latitude, and also by the meri- 

 dian in 4d. 19m. of east longitude. These 

 two lines intersect each other near the 

 western line of Northfield, and about 10 

 miles south westerly from Montpclier, and 

 the point of intersection is the geographi- 

 cal centre of the state. 



Divisions. — The Green Mountains ex- 

 tend quite through the state from south 

 to north, and, following the western range, 

 divide it into two very nearly equal parts. 

 These form the only natural division, 

 with the exception of the waters of lake 

 Champlain, which divide the county of 

 Grand Isle from the counties of Franklin 

 and Chittenden, and the several islands 

 which compose that county, from each 

 other, and from the main land. For civil 

 purposes the state is divided into 14 coun- 

 ties, which are sub-divided into 245 town- 

 ships, and several srnall gores of land, 

 whicli are not yet annexed to, or formed 

 into, town!?hips. The names of the coun- 

 ties, the date of their incorporation, the 

 shire towns, and the number of towns in 

 each county at the present time (1842,) 

 arc exhibited in the followinor table : 



Counties. 

 Addison, 



Bennington 



Caledonia, 



Chittenden, 



Essex, 



Franklin, 



Grand Isle, 



Lamoille 



Orange, 



Orleans, 



Rutland, 



Washington 



Windham, 



Windsor, 



Incorporated. 



Feb.27, 1767 



Feb.11,1779 



1792 

 1782 



1792 

 1792 

 1802 

 1835 

 1781 

 1792 

 1781 

 1810 

 1779 

 1781 



Nov. 5, 

 Oct.22, 

 Nov. 5, 

 Nov. 5, 

 Nov. 9, 

 Oct.26, 

 Feb. 

 Nov. 5, 

 Feb. 

 Nov.l, 

 Feb.ll, 

 Feb. 



Middle'bury, 



Bennington 



Manchester, 



Danville, 



Burlington, 



Guildhall, 



St. Albans, 



North Hero, 



Hydepark, 



Clielsea, 



Irasburgh, 



Rutland, 



Montpelier, 



Newfane, 



Woodstock, 



* Dr. Williams (vol. I, p. 24) seems to have, in- 

 advertently, taken the mean of the two ends of the 

 state for its mean width and thus computed th« 

 are;i at 10,2:^7 1-4 square miles, or 1181m, loo much ; 

 hut this is the area which has usually been given 

 in our geographies and other works respecting Ver- 

 mont. As the area of countries forms the basis of 

 statistical tables, it is a matter of some consequence 

 that it should he correctly stated. Suppose for ex- 

 ample, we wish to know how Vermont compares 

 with the other stales in detisity of population; we 

 divicTe the population of each state by its area and 

 the quotient is the average number of persons to 

 each square mile in the states respectively. Now 

 if we take the Vast censHS and the area at 10,237, 

 the population is only about 28 to a square mile, but 

 if we take the true area, 9,056, it is 32 to the square 

 mile, which would effect very materially its relation 

 to the other stntes. According to the census of 1820, 

 Vermont was set down as the 10th state in density 



