White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-08-20

Would you like to have the experience of being
at the highest and the lowest points in the
United States in the matter of altitude? You
don't have to 60 from one end of the country
to the other to do that. You 60 from the
highest to the lowest points in less than hour
that u.s. If you use airplane. For they are
only SO miles apart. Sail over the summit Of
Mount Whitney in Inyo, Tulare county, in Cali
fornia latitude 14,496 feet above sea leveD
then swoop down less than three miles to the
Death valley in Inyo county and you will be
276 feet below sea level.
But even more interesting than these geo.
graphical facts in Bulletin 817 is the American
history which you will learn from reading about
the boundaries Of the individual states and look
ing at the maps which illustrate it's pages.
Have you ever wondered why some Of our
states have the queer shapes that they have?
The peculiar irregularities of some of the
state boundaries are due to compromises made
to adjust differences between the representa-
tves of the states The "Southwick jog" for
example, which appears on the boundary be-
tween Connecticut and Massachusetts was estab-
lshed because in adjusting errors in the bound
airy, as previously run by compass long, mar
strip Of land was given to Connecticut and
the jog coded to Massachusetts was intended
to be equivalent area.
The panhandle at the southeast corner Of
Missouri is said to be the result Of efforts of
prominent landowner to have his plantation in
cluded in the new state. The projection on the
northern boundary Of Minnesota, which includes
land area of about 124 square miles sepa-
rated from the main part of Minnesota by the
Lake of the Woods resulted from the use Of
inaccurate maps Of the treaty makers
Probably the most widely Unknown boundary in
the United States is the "Mason and Dixon line"
between Pennsylvania and Maryland, run by
two famous English mathematicians in 1863
1857.
The accuracy of their survey Is shown by the
fact that in resurvey 100 years later, with
modern instruments and methods the position
found for the northeast corner of Maryland
differed only $50 feet from their position The
original stones for fivemile marks on this line
were carved in England from limestone and are
still standing, with Lord Baltimore's coat Of
arms on the Maryland side and the Penn arms
on the Pennsylvania side.
The east-west part of the boundary between
Massachusetts and Rhode Island was for more
than 200 years matter of dispute that was in
some respects the most remarkable boundary
question with which this country has had to deal.
Twice the question went to the Supreme court
Of the United States, and in one of these suits
Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate were en-
poyed as counsel for Massachusetts. Choate, to
illustrate the Indebtedness Of certain boundary
lines, said before the Massachusetts legislature:
"The commissioners might as well have de-
cided that the line between the states was
bounded on the north by bramble bush, on
the south by blue Jay, on the west by hive
of bees in swarming time and on the east by
500 foxes with firebrands tied to their tails"
How boundary lines have changed during the
years from the first English settlement to the
present time is we'll illustrated in the case Of
the state Of Virginia The Virginia Charter Of
1900 included the area extending west to the