INTRODUCTION. 
The State of Pennsylvania is situated between 39° 43' and 42° 15' 
north latitude, and between 74° 42' and 80° 35' west longitude from 
Greenwich. It is bounded on the north by New York and Lake Erie; 
on the east by New York and New Jersey, being separated from the 
latter state by the Delaware river; on the south by Delaware, Maryland 
and West Virginia, and on the west by Ohio and West Virginia. Its 
length from east to west is about three hundred and ten miles, and about 
one hundred and sixty miles in width (“except at the angle at Lake 
Erie where it is one hundred and seventy-five ”)• It contains an area of 
28,808,443 acres, of which only about 15,004,962 were improved in 1889. 
“Face of the Country. —No state in the Union presents a greater variety of sur¬ 
face than Pennsylvania. Though they do not rise to any great elevation (seldom 
above 2,000 feet), its mountains spread over about one-fourth of the state in parallel 
ridges, in a direction generally from northeast to southwest, and occupy the southern, 
central and eastern counties. Though all forming parts of the great Appalachian 
chain, they are known by various local appellations. Commencing below Easton, 
on the Delaware, we have the South mountain ; then in order, proceeding west or 
northwest, the Blue or Kittatinny mountain (both entering the state from New 
Jersey, and passing southwest into Maryland), and the Broad mountain, which lies 
south of the North Branch of the Susquehanna. We now cross the river just men¬ 
tioned, but still have with us the Broad mountain, under the name of the Tuscarora; 
passing which, we come upon another ridge, lying mostly south of the Juniata river, 
known as Sideling Hill; which is succeeded in turn by the Allegheny mountains 
proper, the dividing ridge between the Atlantic slope and the Mississippi valley. 
Descending the very gradual Ohio slope, we cross two inferior but well-defined 
chains, known as Laurel and Chestnut Ridges. As before stated, these mountains 
do not rise to a great height; the South mountain is within 1,000, and the Blue 
mountains within 1,500 feet. Broad mountain is said to rise higher above its immedi¬ 
ate base than the Allegheny range, but to be inferior to them in elevation above the 
sea. These different ranges are separated by valleys, now contracted within narrow 
limits, and now spreading out to a width of from fifteen to thirty miles. The entire 
belt in Pennsyl vania spreads over a space of two hundred miles—the greatest breadth 
the Allegheny range attains in its whole course from Maine to Alabama. In the 
southern part of the state the, mountains become high and rugged hills ; the west is 
also hilly, and the southeast and northwest moderately so, but occasionally level. 
The rivers of the western part of the state, cutting their way through the table-land, 
present sometimes precipitous shores of several hundred feet in height, and many 
valleys bear evident marks of their having been formed by running water.” 
(xi) 
