272 



MARYLAND. 



2. Mountains. The narrow strip of territory, belonging to this State, which extends to the 

 west along the northern bank of the Potomac, is crossed by the Appalachian Mountains, but 

 their extent is so small as not to require notice. 



3. Rivers. The Potomac divides this State from Virginia ; it rises in the loftiest region of 

 the Appalachian mountains, near the Alleghany ridge, and flows southeasterly into Chesapeake 

 Bay. It is 550 miles long, and 7^ miles wide at its mouth. The tide water reaches 300 miles 

 from the sea, and there is a good ship navigation for nearly the whole of that distance. Wash- 

 ington, Alexandria, and Georgetown are situated upon this river. Three miles above Wash- 

 ington the navigation is interrupted by falls. 



The Susquehanna comes into this State from Pennsylvania, and empties into Chesapeake 

 Bay. The Patapsco is a small river, navigable from its mouth to Baltimore. The Severn is 

 another small stream, on which Annapolis stands, 2 miles from its mouth. The Patuxent is 

 110 miles long, and is navigable nearly half its course. All these rivers enter the Chesapeake 

 from the west. On the opposite side are Chester River, the Choptank, and the J^anticoke, 

 which are navigated by small water craft. 



4. Islands. The Bay of Chesapeake contains many islands within the limits of Maryland. 

 Kent Island, on the east side of the bay, opposite Annapohs, is 12 miles long. The Tangier 

 Islands lie further down the bay. 



5. Bays and Harbors. The northern half of Chesapeake Bay is contained in this State. 

 The whole Bay is 270 miles in length, and from 7 to 20 miles wide, and generally 9 fathoms 

 deep ; it is narrowest in the northern part. It contains many fine harbors, and is highly favora- 

 ble to navigation. 



6. Climate. The summers in this State are hot, moist, disagreeable, and unhealthy ; agues 

 and intermittent fevers prevail, and the inhabitants have a sickly complexion. These remarks 

 apply more particularly to the southern regions of the State, and especially to those parts on 

 the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. As Maryland lies not only further south than Pennsyl- 

 vania, but is also a lower, and more level country, it will be readily seen, that the winters must 

 be considerably milder ; yet the Potomac at Washington is visually frozen in January. 

 Throughout the whole Slate the weather is subject to sudden changes. 



■*■. Soil. There is little rocky territory in the State, but there are many tracts of thin, un- 

 productive soil. Much of the land, however, is well adapted to the culture of wheat and 

 tobacco. Kitchen vegetables, in great perfection, are produced in the vicinity of Baltimore. 



8. Geology and JMinerals. The eastern jdain consists chiefly of tertiary beds of clay and 

 sand, in some places highly fossiliferous, in others quite destitute of organic remains. The 

 beds of shell-marl are, in an economical view, the most important of these deposits ; they oc- 

 cur in the central eastern, and lower western counties, and consist of shells of difl^erent kinds, 

 imbedded in clay and cemented together by a calcareous or argillaceous cement. This sub- 

 stance aflibrds the farmer an invaluable dressing for his land, those beds which contain the clam 

 with a calcareous cement being the best adapted for this purpose. The masses of oyster-shells 

 found at the mouths of many of the rivers, and sometimes from 6 to S feet in depth, and seve- 

 ral hundred yards in length and breadth, and called by the inhabitants Indian shell-banks, 

 and the oyster-rocks of Sinepuxent Bay, although not geologically connected with the shell- 

 marl, and in no respects fossilized, deserve to be mentioned here on account of their applica- 

 tion to the same economical use. A belt of the upper secondary series, extends across the 

 State, through Cecil, Kent, Ann Arundel, and Prince George's counties, of ihe same age as 

 the New Jersey greensand formation, and possessing the character of the greensand marl. The 

 bog-iron ore of Dorchester, Caroline, and Worcester ; the hone ore, brown ore, and brown 

 oxides of a belt forming the western border of the Plain ; the valuable clays adapted for the 

 manufacture of stone ware, common pottery, glazed ware, and fire-bricks ; alum earth, coppe- 

 ras ore, red and yellow ochres, are among the useful minerals of this region. West of the 

 Plain, extends a belt of primary rocks of the stratified seii&a, comprising gneiss, mica-slate, 

 hornblend rock, limestone, serpentine, chlorite, and clay slates, &c., passing on the west into 

 rocks of the grauwacke group. Chromiferous ores, magnesian earth, yielding Epsom Salts, 

 porcelain earth, lime, marble, manganese, copper ore, &c., occur in this tract, beyond which we 

 find a repetition of the geological formations of Pennsylvania. Iron, coal, and lime, constitute 

 the mineral wealth of the western counties. Pipe ore occurs in the valley beyond the Blue 

 Ridge, and the coal-measures of Alleghany county comprise beds of nodular and hematitic 

 iron ores. The Frostburg coal-field extends from Pennsylvania through Maryland into Vir- 



