History of North America Author:John Talbot Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: to .run in a straight line through a level country. The only eminence, which is about 136 feet high, is on the banks of the river between the tide water and the ... more »canal. The whole cost is estimated at upwards of 800,000 dollars. Another canal, recommended by the legislature, is to pass through Seakank, called Squam Beach, in the township of Havel, Monmouth county, and to form a communication between the main ocean and Cape May Bay, nearly opposite the mouth of Militecunk river, which, when cleared of obstructions, will shorten the passage from New York to some points of the bay, and will become a safe harbour. PENNSYLVANIA Situation and Boundaries.--Pennsylvania is situated between 39, 43, and 42 ot north latitude, and 2" 20' east, and 3 30' west longitude from Washington. It is bounded on the north by New York and Lake Erie; south by Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia; east by New York and New Jersey; west by Ohio and Virginia. The form of this state is nearly a parallelogram, the length of which, from east to west, is about 273 mHes, and the breadth from north to south 153. Area.—24,500 square miles, or 27,200,000 acres. Aspect of the Country and Nature of the Soil.—The great chain of mountains, called the Alleghany, runs across the state from north-east to south-west. Between their numerous ridges there are delightful vallies, with a very rich soil. Every kind of soil is to be found in this state; but a great proportion of the land is of an excellent quality. The poorest soil is in the maritime parts, where it consists generally of a light sandy loam. The soil of the southern and north-western parts, and of all the vallies, is a black mould, or rich loam, which is extremely fertile. All the new forest land in general has several inches of a light black mould, formed by ...« less