The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1895-01-12
BOUNDARIES OF COUNTIES.
In Maryland Mountains and Rivers Act
as Such.

as SuNu.
Few even of the New England States
nave made use of natural features for
country boundaries. British kings set the
fashion in the New World of marking DO
litcal divisions by imaginary lines, and
the fashion has been followed faithfully in
states old and new. Its final development
is found in the Western States and terri
tories, where natures boundaries, noun
tains 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 consid-
cradle extent Vermont and New Hamp-
shire have here and there used mountain
ranges and streams for county boundaries.
Massachusetts and Connecticut have dis
regarded natural boundaries in great de-
gree. Even the great Connecticut River
now. across counties, and is IA boundary
line only between parts of Middlesex and
New London counties in Connecticut, Rhode
Islands chief country boundaries are imagi-
nary lines.
Massachusetts has two island counties
Dukes and Nantucket. Island counties
occur also in New York and Washington
but not elsewhere, though the larger por-
ton OF Door county, Wis, is an Island in
Lake Michigan Washington's Island
county bears the name of Island, and is
surrounded by the water of Puget Sound.
Names counties average nearly 800 square
miles each IN area, and there are several
each OF which are larger than the state of
Rhode Island.
New York has few natural county bound
aries save in the lake regions and along the
Hudson. New Jersey has artificial bound
aries for many counties, but Pennsylvania
has used mountains and rivers in many in
stances. Delaware has used small streams
to bound her counties and even her town.
ships or hundreds, as they are called.
Maryland, Virginia and West Nerginia,
having plenty of streams and mountain
ranges, used such natural features for
county boundaries. Virginia $ counties are
unusually small in both area and popula-
ton. Natural boundaries are usual in the
Carolinas, Georgia an dAlabama, but Miss
lsslppl has many imaginary county lines
ana her counties are noticed in way to
suggest that they were made with view
to the production of one of those wooden
puzzle maps that are held together by the
notices. Louisiana, Arkansas tennessee
ana kentucky have the characteristic rec
tangular county forms with many imagi-
nary boundary lines, though creeks and
rivers are used to sCme extent in Kentucky
and tennessee. Florida has boundary
lines OF each sort, and so has Texas, save
IN the northwest, where natural boundaries
are almost entirely disregarded. Buchel
county, Texas, is Il right-angled triangle
and perhaps the only one in the United
States.
The states of the middle West have COM
palatlvely few natural county boundaries
and those Immediately beyond the Missis-
sippi almost disregard landmarks in the
choice OF county lines, the counties being
piled automatically tier on tier. Even
the great river Platte flows across Nebraska
much OF is way through counties.
The R"ckey Mountain States, unable to
disregard the stern necessities of great
rivers and almost impossible mountains,
have accepted these natural features as
county lines, though the Missouri flows
through one of the North Dakota counties.
Oregon and Washington have accepted
mountain ranges and great rivers for county
lines, and SO has California, though in
many cases imaginary boundaries are used.
single county of Montana is about as
large AS all the New England States to-
gether, save Maine. Cherry county, Neb.,
is nearly as large as New jersey, and one
county in Arizona is nearly as large as
Vermont and New Hampshire. One
county in Wyoming exceeds by 200 square
miles the area of Vermont, and any one of
twenty far Western counties is almost
double the area of Delaware.