settled by the freest of the free."




CHAPTER I.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF NORTH CAROLINA.

The State of North Carolina is included between the parallels
34° and 362° north latitude, and between the meridians 752° and
842° west longitude. Its western boundary is the crest of the
Smoky Mountains, which, with the Blue Ridge, forms a part of the
great Appalachian system, extending almost from the mouth of the
St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico; its eastern is the Atlantic
Ocean. Its mean breadth from north to south is about one hundred
miles; its extreme breadth is one hundred and eighty-eight miles.
The extreme length of the State from east to west is five hundred
miles. The area embraced within its boundaries is fifty-two
thousand two hundred and eighty-six square miles.

2. The climate of North Carolina is mild and equable. This is
due in part to its geographical position; midway, as it were,
between the northern and southern limits of the Union. Two other
causes concur to modify it; the one, the lofty Appalachian chain,
which forms, to some extent, a shield from the bleak winds of the
northwest; the other, the softening influence of the Gulf Stream,
the current of which sweeps along near its shores.

3. The result of these combined causes is shown in the character