The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-12-12
MASON AND D1xsoN's LINE.-James Veech,

MASON AND D1xsoNs LINE.-James Veech
Esq, in his new work on Western Penn
sylvania, speaks thus OF the Southern bound
ary of the Commonwealth:
The southern boundary of Pennsylvania
exhibits several striking peculiarities. Its
eastern end consists of n considerable arc OF
circle, which, springing from the river
Delaware, connects itself with the latitudin-
al part of the line by a deep indentation, or
notch, so as to resemble what in architect
ure, is called bead. From the initial point
of=th latitudinal line, near the circle, ii
stretches away to the west, through fields
and forests, intent only upon preserving its
course, without being DETECTED by either the
channel of river or the crest of noun
tain. Climbing obliquely the summit of the
Alleghenies, it turns its back upon the foun-
tains which feed the Atlantic. and rushing
down into the Ohio Valley, stoops in its
pathway to drink of the crystal waters of
the loughiogeny. Rising refreshed, and
with its eye fixed to the west, it hurries on,
regardless of the intersecting line ola sister
sovereignty; and stalking across the Cheat
and Monongahela, stops amid the Fishcreek
hills, within half a days journey of the river
Ohio, as if exhausted by the rugged route it
has traversed, and unable to reach that great
natural boundary, recognized by every other
State than Pennsylvania which it's current
layes.
Upon closer inspection, it viii be seen
that it is equally regardless of the estab-
liShed lines of admcasurement upon the
earth S surface, conforming to neither of the
limits Of degree Of latitude, nor TO any Of
it, easily cornprehendcd parts and this
without being forced into its anomalous po-
Sitior by an object or an obstacle of nature.
For at neither end does it terminate, nor in
any part of its extended course does it touch
any prominent natural landmark. 1t is
wholly in every part, and in all its forms,
artificial, arbitrary line, without a model
or q fellow upon the continent; and yet it
is, perhaps, more unalterable than if nature
had made it, for it limits the sovereignty of
four States, each of whom is as tenacious of
its peculiar systems of law as of its soil. It
is the boundary of empire.
Whence came these peculiarities-this
palpable disregard of the plain provisions
of nature and science for the divisions of
dominiens? Is this singular line the result
of compalsion, or of compact, of noisy strife,
or of quiet agreement? How old is it
what its ancestry-whence its name? These,
with many other curious questions, which
spring from the subject, take hold upon the
past, and find their solution only in history.
suAJCCtl pOOs AOH hl5L1Ay
to be T" length, without breadth or thick
ness. Yet.@fhis line has a history of
hundred years duration, spreading out over
more than FIVE of the old thirteen States
and sinking deep into the very foundation
of their being It abounds in curious con-
fict Of grant and construction, in bold en-
croachments upon vested rights, in artful
remedies for inconvenient limitations
Kings, lords and commoners - English,
Swedes and Dutch, Quakers and Catholics,
figure conspicuously in the narrative with
dramatic effect. Upon much of the disputed
margins of the line have been enacted
scenes of riot, invasion, and even murder,
which want only the fanciful pen of Scott
or an Irving to develop theic romantic in
terest. In the strife and negotiations which
led to its establishment, endurance and
evasion were put to their highest tests
in tracing it, science achieved one of its
most arduous labors In intricacy and in
terest, if not in Importance. the subject is
inferior to none in American history.