The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1895-02-01
FACTS ABOUT COUNTIES.

Few even of the New England States
have made use of natural features for
county boundaries British kings set
the fashion in the New World of mark
ing political divisions by imaginary
lines, and the fashion has been follow
ed faithfully in States old and new
Its final development is found in the
Western States and territories, where
natures boundaries, mountain ranges
and rivers are neglected for the sake
of the parallels and meridians. Maine,
whose counties are as irregular in
shape as any in the world, has not
made use of natural landmarks to any
considerable extent. Vermont and
New Hampshire have here and there
used mountain ranges and streams for
county boundaries. Massachusetts
and Connecticut nave disregarded
natural boundaries in great degree.
Even the great Connecticut river flows
across counties and is boundary line
only bet ween parts of Middlesex and
New London counties in Connecticut.
Rhode Islands chief county boundar-
les are imaginary lines.
Massachusetts has two island coun-
ties, Dukes and Nantucket Island
counties also occur in New York and
Washington, but not elsewhere, though
the larger part OF Door county, Wis,
is an island in Lake Michigan. Wash
ington's island county bears the name
of Island and is surrounded by the
waters of Puget sound. Names coun-
ties average nearly 500 square miles
each in area, and there are several
each of which is larger than the State
of Rhode Island.
New York has few natural county
bounaries save in the lake regions and
along the Hudson. New Jersey has ar
titicial boundaries for many counties,
but Pennsylvania has used mountains
and rivers in many instances. Della
ware has used small streams to bound
her counties and even her towships,o or
hundreds, as they are called. Mary
land, Virginia and West Virginia,
having plenty of streams and noun
tain ranges, use such natural features
for county boundaries. VirginIa's
counties are unusually small in both
area and population. Natural bound
aries are usual in the Carolinas,
Georgia and Alabama, but Mississippi
has many imaginary county lines, and
her counties are notched in way to
suggest that they were made with a
view to the production of one of those
gether by the notches. Louisiana,
Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky
have the characteristic rectangular
county forms with many imaginary
boundary lines, though creeks and
rivers are used to some extent in Ken
lucky AMI Tennessee. Florida has
boundary lines of each sort, and so
has Texas, save in the northwest,
where natural boundaries are almost
entirely IisreSarded. Duchel county,
Tex, is right angle'l triangle and
perhaps the only one i'll the United
States.
The States of the middle west have
comparatively few natural county
boundaries, and those Immediately be-
yond the Mississippi almost disregard
landmarkers in the choice of county
lines, the counties being piled mathe-
matically tier on tier. Even the great
river Platte flows across Nebraska
much of it's way through counties.
The Rocky Mountain States, I'M
able to disregard the stern necessities
of great rivers and almost impossible
mountain ranges, have accepted these
natural features as county lines,
Continued on fourth page.