MAINE, a province of France, was bounded on the N. by Normandy, on the W. by Brittany, on the S. by Anjou and Touraine, and on the E. by Orléanais; along with the northern part of Anjou it is now represented by the departments of Sarthe and Mayenne. Together with a portion of Perche which was conterminous with it on the northeast, and the countship of Laval on the west, it constituted a great military government, of which Le Mans was the capital. Before the Roman conquest Maine was held by the Aulerci Cenomani, whence probably its name. Le Mans, a great city, was connected by the conquerors by good roads with Chartres, Orleans, Vendome, Tours, Angers, Jublains (capital of the Aulerci Diablintes, inhabiting the western portion of Maine), and Sées. Under the later Caesars the Cenomani became almost independent, and joined the Armorican republic. Christianity was first introduced in the 3d century by St Julian, first bishop of Le Mans. Down to the time of Hugh Capet the bishops were the real rulers of the country; but in consequence of the incursions of the Northmen, who came up the Sarthe and Mayenne, the erection of strongholds became necessary, and Hugh C ’ Jpet made the countship of Maine hereditary in the person of Hugh I. One of the descendants of the latter, Count Herbert, having acknowledged the suzerainty of William, duke of Normandy, the people of Le Mans availed themselves of the absence of the Conqueror in England to rise against him, and were ultimately successful in gaining their freedom. Maine became united with Anjou by the marriage of its heiress with Fulk of Anjou, father of Geoffrey Plantagenet. Henry II. of England, the son of Geoffrey, was born at Le Mans. On the confiscation of the estates of King John, Maine passed to Philip Augustus of France; ...by Louis IX., the grandson of
Philip, it was handed over in 1245 to Charles, count of Provence, afterwards king of Naples; and in 1328 it was reunited to the domains of the crown by Philip of Valois, who was count of Maine. It was again separated by his grandson Louis of Anjou, the brother of King Charles V. During the Hundred Years’ War, Maine was a continual battlefield; the English were at last driven out by Dunois, who took possession of Le Mans in 1447. In 1481, on the death of Charles of Maine, the last scion of the house of Anjou, Maine was again united to the French crown by Louis XI. The province suffered much during the wars of religion; its strong places were dismantled by Henry IV. and Richelieu. At the Revolution the troops of La Vendée entered Maine, and took possession of Laval, Mayenne, and Le Mans at the end of 1793; after they had been defeated by the republican forces under Marceau and Westermann, their place was taken by the Chouans; and the pacification of the province, begun by General Hoche, was not completed until 1800. Towards the close of 1870 the second army of the Loire, retreating before the Prussians, was reformed in Maine, and in the neighbourhood of Le Mans one of the last great struggles in the Franco-German war took place in January 1871.
MAINECopyright, 1882, by Joshua I.. Chamberlain.
MAINE, the most north-easterly of the United States, lies between 43° 4' and 47° 27' 33" N. lat., and between 66° 56' 48" and 71° 6' 41" W. long. It is 302 miles in extreme length and 285 in width, with a total area of 33,040 square miles (of which 29,895 square miles are land), being nearly, as large as all the other New England States combined. Its figure resembles that of a mountain peak, broken at the top. Its S.E. base rests on the Atlantic Ocean. On the E. and N. it has the province of New Brunswick, and on the N.W, the province of Quebec, while its southern half is bounded on the W. by the State of New Hampshire.
The coast-line measured direct is about 225 miles in extent; but the numerous river mouths and indentations of the sea make an actual tide-water line of not less than 2500 miles. The headlands and far-stretching narrow points, together with innumerable outlying islands, give to the whole ocean front the appearance of a fringed and tasselled border. This striking feature, which gives peculiar interest in many ways to the coast of Maine, is chiefly the result of a southward glacial movement, which, coinciding with the trend of the rocks produced by a remote geologic upheaval, cut these fiord valleys far out into the sea, the prolongation of their edges being marked by islands, reefs, and scattered knobs of rock. In these deep bays and river mouths, and behind these outlying islands, are numerous harbours, convenient, safe, and capacious, and the poet is well within the truth who sings of “hundred-harboured Maine.” There are no better harbours on the Atlantic coast than those of Portland and Wiscasset. The beaches and marshes and low grassy islands common in the west are scarcely found east of the Kennebec river, beyond which the shore becomes more and more bold, rising in the precipitous cliffs and rounded summits of Mount Desert and Quoddy Head to a height of from 1000 to 1500 feet. The general slope of the land surface falls from an extreme elevation of 2000 feet on the west, in the neighbourhood of the white Mountains, to 600 feet on the east. Two principal drainage slopes stretch respectively southward and northward from a watershed which crosses the State in a general easterly and westerly direction, at a distance of about 140 miles from the coast, while the northward slope has an extreme breadth of about 80 miles. The general direction of the rivers, as determined by these slopes, is about south-southeast for the southern slope and north-north-east for the northern. It is a noteworthy fact that the course of the principal rivers is at right angles to the general trend of the stratified rocks, throughout the large section where these are exhibited. The surface is hilly and rolling rather than mountainous. The Appalachian range, which becomes so prominent in the White Mountain group just westward of the State, seems to have broken its force there and to have strewn only a few scattered mountain masses across middle Maine and into New Brunswick. These all have a peculiar aspect, rising in conical peaks, heavily wooded at the base and bare at the summit. The most noteworthy is Mount Katahdin, with a height of 5385 feet (a little less than Mount Washington), and in its isolation and crater-like formation the most remarkable mountain in New England.
The lakes of Maine, situated for the most part among these mountain regions, are among its characteristic and most attractive features. They number more than 1570, with an aggregate area of 2300 square miles, about one-fifteenth part of the entire area of the State. The largest is Moosehead Lake, 35 miles long by 10 miles wide; but many others of less size are more picturesque. Their height above the sea-level is noticeable. Rangely Lake, at the head of the Androscoggin river, is 1511 feet high, this altitude being very nearly that of Lake Itasca at the head of the Mississippi; Moosehead, on the Kennebec waters, is 1023 feet in height, or nearly two-thirds as high again as Lake Superior at the source of the St Lawrence; Chamberlain Lake, on the headwaters of the St John, 926 feet, and Chesuncook, on the Penobscot, 900 feet high, are 400 or 500 feet above the level of Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire. Most of the lakes of Maine lie within regions as yet unsettled, where nature’s wild luxuriance and grandeur are still undisturbed by man. Few similarly habitable regions possess lakes in such numbers and of such size, variety of situation, and beauty of aspect and surroundings. They are, moreover, nearly all connected with the river systems of the State, and constitute vast reservoirs for evaporation, irrigation, and mechanical power.
All the principal rivers rise at great elevations—the Saco at an altitude of 1890 feet, the Androscoggin 3000, the Kennebec 2000, the Penobscot 2500, the St John 1980. The general drainage areas, however, fall off in height and increase in breadth in proportion as their location is easterly. The principal features of the water systems of Maine are the great amount of fall, the control of steady volume by the storage capacity of the lakes, and tfie situation of the best falls in the lower sections of the rivers where the volume is largest, and in many instances at the head of tide-waters where vessels may come to their very feet. The waterpower of the State available for industrial purposes has been estimated by Walter Wells, in his valuable report on that subject, to amount to 1,229,200,000,000 cubic feet, with gross power of 4427 horse for each foot of fall, making a total of 2,656,200 horse-power.
The important geological features are connected with the highly crystalline metamorphic condition of the strata, which rarely lie in horizontal position, but are upturned, bent, folded, and fractured. Fossiliferous rocks occur only in limited localities in the interior. In various places veins of silver-bearing galena and of copper are exposed. Granite of every variety and quality abounds in veins and in eruptive masses. The western portion of the State is largely granitic in its features, and a belt of the same rocks extends along the entire sea-coast. There are also beautiful varieties of syenite. In many places the granite is very coarse, so that the constituents can be separated, and each utilized for industrial purposes. The felspar, quartz, and mica often lie in large contiguous veins. Valuable beds of crystalline limestone are found in many places along the coast, and in the Aroostook region. Argillaceous slates as well as limestone occur in the interior and in the north. On the Piscataquis, a tributary of the Penobscot, the slate is suitable for writing-slates and pencils, blackboards, and tables, while large quantities of roofing slate are found throughout the whole region between the Kennebec and Penobscot. There are also some beds of marble well suited for building purposes. Some surface iron is found, especially in one locality in the interior known as the Katahdin iron-works, where the iron is remarkably pure owing to its freedom from sulphur and phosphorus. A bed of haematite is found in Aroostook county.
The soil is mostly of glacial origin, derived largely from boulders and a mixture of rocks transported from various and often distant localities. This drift is spread everywhere over the surface. Along the lake-beds and rivers are some alluvial soils and old flood-planes. Deposits of Quaternary marine clays occur along the south border, rising to the height of 200 feet above the sea. These clays were deposited during the Champlain epoch, at a time when the temperature of the water was much lower than at present, as is indicated by the fossil remains which abound in them. In the lower strata these remains of life are of the same species as are now found living in the Arctic seas. Skeletons of the walrus have been found in Portland and elsewhere. In the upper strata the remains of life indicate the same species as now exist on the coast. Isolated forms of life not elsewhere found north of Massachusetts occur in the north part of Quohaug Bay (northeast of Casco Bay), composed of various species which seem to be a remnant of former life on this coast. A family of living oysters is still found among the debris of giant progenitors in the Damariscotta river, east of the Kennebec; and remains of the oyster, quohaug, and scallop are abundant in the numerous and extensive shell-heaps found all along the coast.
In general it may be said that animal life in this State shows a mixture of northern and southern forms, and but little that is peculiar as compared with surrounding regions. The moose, caribou, and deer still roam in the vast forests in the north. The bear, wolf, catamount, wolverene, wild cat, fox, beaver, raccoon, marten, sable, woodchuck, rabbit, and squirrel keep at a due distance from man, and so still exist. Seals are found in many of the bays. Wild geese and ducks and other sea fowl frequent the lakes and bays in the migratory season, and eagles, ospreys, gulls, hawks, kingfishers, owls, plover, woodcock, partridges, pigeons, quails, blackbirds, robins, orioles, bobolinks, blue birds, swallows and sparrows in all variety, yellow birds, and humming birds are common. The inland waters teem with fish of various kinds—pickerel, togue, and bream, and, chief of all, the trout, whose beauty and size attract numbers of sportsmen; while in the rivers the sturgeon, bass, and salmon are still plentiful. Game laws protect several species of the fish, birds, and other animals. Along the coast the clam, mussel, and lobster are abundant, and in some places the horse-shoe crab is found. Of shore-fish the cunner, flounder, rock-cod, and sculpin are most common, while off shore cod, haddock, hake, herring, pollack, menhaden, porgy, and mackerel abound. The black fish and porpoise are not uncommon. Gigantic cuttle-fishes, measuring 4.0 feet and upwards in the long tentacles, and thus not inaptly termed sea-serpents, have sometimes been seen in these waters.
The forests of Maine consist chiefly of pine, spruce, hemlock, and fir, although some oak is found along the coast, and other hard wood growth in the highlands of the Aroostook. The white cedar is common, especially in the low lands in the east and north-east. The hackmatack or black larch appears in the same localities. White and red oak, rock (or sugar) maple, white maple, white and yellow birch, white and brown ash, beech, cherry, basswood (linden), and poplar are the common deciduous trees. Chestnut and walnut are rare, and are found only near the south-west border. The majestic mast pine—the heraldic emblem of Maine, which has given it the sobriquet the “Pine Tree State ”—is fast receding before the demands of commerce. Of fruit trees the chief is the apple. The plum, cherry, and pear are also natural. The peach thrives only in the south-west border. Species of grape, gooseberry, and currant are native, and others are cultivated with advantage. The blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry grow wild in profusion throughout the State.
The climate of Maine, while on the whole cooler than might be expected from its mean latitude of 45° N., cannot be considered severe or unfavourable to health. The summer heats are tempered by the sea and the cool north winds. The winter cold has a constancy which makes it less severely felt than the changing temperature of more southern places. The air is also more dry and pure owing to the snow surface. The average winter temperature is about 20°, and remains pretty steadily below the freezing-point throughout the State for at least three months. By reason of the tides and the prevailing off-shore winds, which break up and drive off the ice, many of the harbours are unobstructed the winter through. The summers are short, giving something less than five months between frosts, even in the southern portion, but the heat sometimes rises for a few days to 100° Fahr. The average summer heat is 62 o, 5 Fahr. The lakes and forests of Maine attract great numbers of summer tourists, and the sea-coast is fast becoming lined with the cottages of summer residents from all parts of the country.
The soil is well-drained, and the surface swept by sea breezes and winds from the forests and mountains of the north-west, which tend to banish malarious disease. The principal form of disease is phthisis or disease of' the respiratory organs, the ratio of deaths therefrom being a little over 27 per cent, of the entire mortality. This has been called the “scourge of New England”; but in Old England the death-rate from this class of diseases is only a fraction less—26 ∙6 per cent.
The old United States district court for Maine, constituted in 1779, remains; and Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island constitute the first district of the United States circuit court. The officers of these courts are a judge, district attorney, marshal, clerk, and reporter; Maine is also a district for the collection of United States internal revenue. There are seven United States forts in Maine, only one of which, Fort Preble, Portland, is fully garrisoned; and the United States navy yard, often called Portsmouth navy yard, is in Kittery, Maine.
Maine has two senators and four representatives in Congress, and six votes in the electoral college for choosing the president. The government of Maine rests on a constitution adopted in 1820, which closely resembles that of the other New England States. It is most liberal in respect to suffrage, every male citizen twenty-one years of age and upwards resident in the State for three months, except paupers, persons under guardianship, and Indians not taxed, being allowed to vote. The governor and legislature are chosen every two years, and the legislative sessions are also biennial. A council chosen by the legislature on joint ballot advises and assists the governor in the appointment of State officers, management of State institutions and lands, granting pardons, and other duties with which they may be charged by the legislature. The judiciary consists of a supreme court of eight members at a salary of $3000, with a reporter of decisions, appointed by the governor and council for seven years; the superior courts for Cumberland and Kennebec counties, whose judges are appointed in the same way; as also trial justices for the several counties with jurisdiction in minor cases; justices of the peace for the county, who are authorized to solemnize marriage, with other prescribed duties; and municipal and police judges. Each county elects judges of probate and insolvency, and registers of the same, a county attorney, clerk of court, sheriff, and county commissioners.
The enrolled militia numbers 97,320. The present system keeps up an élite corps consisting of two regiments of volunteer infantry and one battery of light artillery, with two regiments of reserve infantry. Much pains is taken in the discipline and character of this small corps, and membership in it is regarded as honourable. The entire State militia is by existing orders constituted into one division under the command of a major-general, who is elected by concurrent ballot of the two houses of the legislature.
Various reformatory, sanitary, and benevolent institutions are supported wholly or in part by the State. The State prison, with an average of one hundred and forty-six convicts, is managed on the “hard labour” and the “silent” system, at an annual expense of $30,000, which in some years is cancelled by the proceeds of the convicts’ labour, chiefly employed in carriage and harness making.
The hospital for the insane is an extensive establishment, with upwards of four hundred inmates and an increasing demand for more accommodation. The annual appropriation for State beneficiaries here is $40,000. An annual appropriation ($14,000) is made for the education of the deaf and dumb and the blind, and also ($1200) for the care of idiotic and feeble-minded persons in institutions out of the State.
The remnants of two tribes of Indians still exist in Maine, with which the State is in public relations, the Penobscots, numbering about six hundred, and the Passamaquoddies, numbering five hundred. The former have their chief gathering place on the islands in the Penobscot river, and the latter on the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay and the St Croix river. Though classed usually as civilized, they are still virtually in tribal relations. Their status is determined by a series of treaties from early times, which are a curious mixture of notions of international rights and of wardship.
The public policy which has culminated in the well-known prohibitory ‘ , Maine Law” began with the ‘ ‘ Act to restrict the sale of intoxicating liquors,” passed in August 1846. This was followed in 1851 by an “Act for the suppression of drinking houses and tippling shops,” and by thirty-nine other statutes directed against liquor selling, drunkenness, and the habit of drinking in the community. The manufacture for sale of any intoxicating liquors, except cider, is forbidden. The sale of such liquor by the manufacturer is punished by imprisonment for two months and a fine of $100. Unadulterated cider in quantities of 5 gallons and upwards may lawfully be sold. No person is allowed to sell any intoxicating liquors, including wine, ale, porter, strong beer, lager beer, and all other malt liquors, also cider for tippling purposes, on a penalty for a first offence of $30 and costs, or imprisonment for thirty days; for a second offence $20 and costs and imprisonment for thirty days; third offence $20 and costs and imprisonment for ninety days. A common seller on conviction is punished for a first offence by fine of $100 and costs, or imprisonment for three months; for a second and subsequent offences $200 and costs, and four months’ imprisonment. A person convicted of keeping a drinking house or tippling shop is punished by fine of $100 and costs, or imprisonment for three months, for a first offence, and the same with six months’ additional imprisonment for every subsequent conviction. Any one injured in person, property, means of support, or otherwise by an intoxicated person may bring an action for damages against the person who sold the liquor; and the owner or lessee of the building where it was sold is jointly liable if cognizant of such use. Any person convicted of being intoxicated in the streets or in any house, or of disturbing the public peace or that of his own or any family, is punished by a fine of $10, or thirty days’ imprisonment, and for the second offence $20 or ninety days. All intoxicating liquors kept for sale and the vessels containing them are contraband, and forfeited to the towns where seized, and are there to be destroyed To provide for the necessary sale of such liquors a State commissioner is appointed by the governor and council to furnish to the municipal officers of towns pure, unadulterated intoxicating liquors to be sold for medicinal, mechanical, and manufacturing purposes. He is put under $10,000 bond, and is allowed 7 per cent, commission on his sales. Municipal officers may purchase what they deem necessary of such liquors, and appoint an agent to sell them for such purposes as have been named, and no other. This agent is forbidden to sell to any minor, soldier, Indian, or intoxicated person, or to any person of whose intemperate habits he has been notified by such person’s relations or by the municipal officers. It is made the special duty of sheriffs and county attorneys to enforce the provisions of the laws relating to the sale of intoxicating liquors.
The history of this legislation is that of laws generally which are enacted rather from the high moral ends which they propose than from the sincere and settled judgment of the legislators, and which do not represent the average moral sentiment actually prevailing among the people in whose name they are enacted and are to be enforced. It was inevitable that towards an issue like this political parties should take an attitude not always sincere. The Maine law has not entirely suppressed drunkenness, or even liquor selling, but it has had a decided influence in that direction. It has also tended to make drinking disgraceful, and has removed much temptation from young mem The people would be reluctant to abolish it until they could see something better to put in its place.
The population of Maine has not increased at an equal ratio with the other States of the Union, as will be observed from the subjoined table. There is a constant emigration from the State of native-born people to other parts of the country, which is only about half made up for by immigration from the adjoining provinces and the Old World. [table]
In 1880 the number of native-born was 590,053, and of foreign-born 58,883.
The following cities had in 1880 a population of 5000 and upwards :—Portland, Lewiston, Bangor, Biddeford, Auburn, Augusta, Bath, Rockland, Saco, Calais, Brunswick, Belfast, Ellsworth.
Divorces in Maine reach the highest ratio to the marriages, or to the population, of any State of which statistics are reported. The privilege of a jury trial favours the plaintiffs, and it is not easy to find a jury who will withhold a verdict for divorce.
The birth-rate of the native or oldest and typical families of Maine has greatly fallen off, and the number of children of school age is diminishing, not only proportionately to the population but in positive numbers, the diminution for the last eleven years being 14,200.
The latest reports as to the religious societies of Maine show that there are 242 Congregationalist churches, with a membership of 21,340; 261 Baptist churches, membership 20,954; Methodist 228, membership 20,774; Freewill Baptist 286, and membership 15,822; Christian 60, membership 6000; Universalist 41, membership 4500; Unitarian 21, membership (estimated) 2500; Episcopal 32, membership 2115; New Jerusalem 5, membership 341; others 9500;—total Protestant membership 103,846. There are 42 Roman Catholic churches, with a membership of 40,000. The tendency seems to be to a decrease of the Congregationalists, and a corresponding increase of the Free Baptists and Methodists.
Common school education in the State is widespread. In the number of citizens able to read and write it stands in the very front rank of States. Instruction in the public schools is not under ecclesiastical control, and is free to all between the ages of four and twenty-one, and compulsory upon all between the ages of nine and fifteen years for twelve weeks each year. Every city and town is required to raise and expend annually for schools not less than 80 cents for each inhabitant. The State meets this on its part "by distributing, in proportion to the number of children of school age in each town, the income of a permanent school fund ($44,275,791), and by a State tax of 1 mill per dollar of valuation on the property in the State, and a tax of one per cent, on the average annual deposits in savings banks. The average cost of supporting the public schools is $1,240,000 a year. In the larger towns the schools are graded into primary, intermediate, and grammar schools. A system of free high’ schools was established in 1878, for which the State contributes a sum equal to that paid by the town, not exceeding $250. The whole sum appropriated in 1881 was $26,000. There are three normal schools, intended for the training of teachers in the common schools. For these tuition is free, and the annual appropriation required is $19,000. The State college of agriculture and mechanic arts may in some respects be considered the culmination of the public school system. A large farm and various workshops are here provided, and every facility afforded at the least possible expense for a good education, chiefly directed to the industrial arts, but still liberal in scope. There are three colleges, with the usual course of study leading to the degrees of bachelor and master of arts :—Bowdoin, founded by the old State of Massachusetts in 1794, and since liberally endowed by private benefactions, from which Hawthorne and Longfellow graduated; Colby University, founded as Waterville College in 1820, and under the control of the Baptist denomination; and Bates College, founded in 1863, in the interest of the Free Baptist denomination, with a fitting school and a theological seminary attached. The theological seminary at Bangor, under the care of the Congregationalists, is open to all denominations, and attracts many students from the adjacent provinces of Canada. The medical department of Bowdoin College is known as the medical school of Maine. It has an annual attendance of more than 100. and has graduated 1300. There are various societies which are of a nature to" afford instruction. The Maine Historical Society is making interesting investigations, and preserving memorials and records of historical matters, and its publications are of much value.
The bonded debt of the State is $5,801,900, which matures on: or before 1889. Deducting the sinking fund of $1,436,367, the. actual balance of indebtedness is now (1882) $4,365,533. The local and municipal debt for all purposes, including aid to railroads, is $17,722,109.
The total settled area of Maine is 17,900 square miles, of which 6000 have a population of 2 to 6 to the square mile, 3500 have 6 to 18, 5600 have 18 to 45, and 2800 have 43 to 90. Agriculture is still the most extensive occupation, engaging 83,000 of the people. There are 64,310 farms, with 1,864,136 acres of tillage. Of these 61,530 farms are occupied by their owners; 24,640 contain over 100 acres each, and nearly as many have between 50 and 100 acres. The chief farm products are annually:—potatoes, 8,000,000 bushels; hay, 1,200,000 tons; butter, 14,103.960 lb; cheese, 1,167,770 1b; oats, 2,265,575 bushels; maize, 960,633 bushels; wheat, 665,714 bushels; buckwheat, 382,701 bushels; barley, 242,185 bushels; rye, 26,398 bushels; wool, 2,776,404 lb; milk sold, 3,720,783 gallons.
The remaining unsettled area is mostly unbroken forest. At i>resent this region only furnishes material for lumbering. The pine ιas been cut back to the headwaters of the rivers, and the chief material is spruce and hemlock, with some cedar. The principal shipping port is Bangor on the Penobscot, where the amount surveyed has been 200,000,000 feet a year.
In fisheries the State stands second in the Union. There are 12,662 persons directly employed in fisheries, but it is estimated that 48,000 people are dependent chiefly on this business. The sea fish taken are cod, hake, haddock, pollack, herring, mackerel, and holibut. The amount taken is 206,778,693 lb annually. There are establishments for preparing oil from the menhaden, &c., where 168,732 gallons a year are produced. The canning of fish is a considerable industry; and in the lobster canning business this State has a monopoly. The catch in 1879 was for Maine 14,234,182 lb, and that bought of British fishermen 10,588,578 lb. In the home establishments 1,830,200 cans were put up, and in those worked in the British Provinces on account of Maine owners 2,198,024 cans. A recent but rapidly growing interest is that of sardine canning, chiefly carried on at Eastport. In 1880 there were 1328 persons employed in this industry, with an annual product of 7,550,868 cans and 8365 barrels. The river fish chiefly taken are salmon, shad, alewives, and smelts. Much interest is taken in restocking the lower rivers, especially with salmon, shad, and bass. The Penobscot is the only river on the Atlantic coast ot the United States from which a supply of sea salmon eggs can be obtained for propagation. An association of the United States with the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut appoints agents for procuring these eggs, which are distributed in proportion to the respective contribution of funds. The great hatchery is at Orland, where also there is one for the eggs of the land-locked salmon; there is another at Grand Lake Stream, owned by the same association. The black bass and alewives have also been distributed in the lower ponds and streams.
The other native products are lime, quarried stone,—both for building and for monumental purposes—slate, iron, and copper. Ice is cut and shipped to various parts of the world, to the amount annually of 350,000 tons, and the value, when ready for transportation, of $600,000. Maine was long distinguished for her shipbuilding; and, though of late years this industry has greatly fallen off, yet in the building of wooden ships the State probably holds her old rank. The shipping owned in Maine is mostly engaged in foreign commerce, or in coasting to and from distant States. There are 12,000 sailors in this service. There are 1022 miles of railroad in Maine. Of manufactories there are 24 cotton-mills, running 696,564 spindles, and employing 11,844 persons, of whom 7010 are women; and 97 woollen-mills of all kinds, employing 3265 persons, of whom 1160 are women. The other chief industries are flouring mills, leather tanneries, boot and shoe making, paper making, and iron working of various kinds.
The shores of what is now sometimes called the Gulf of Maine, whose waters stretch between Cape Sable and Cape Cod, attracted much attention from the early voyagers and explorers, as many glowing accounts remain to testify. The Cabots, under English auspices, visited this region in 1497; Verrazano, representing the French, in 1524; Gomez in the name of Spain in 1525, giving his name to Penobscot river and bay. In 1526 the Frenchman Thevet followed; he states that before that time the French had a fort 30 miles up the river, named Norumbega. The enterprise of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert first reveals a purpose on the part of Englishmen to colonize these shores. Gosnold (1602), Pring (1603)
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MAINE DE BIRAN, François-Pierre-Gonthier (1766-1824), a distinguished philosopher of France, the son of a physician, was born at Bergerac November 29, 1766. After studying with distinction under the doctrinaires of Perigueux, he entered the life-guards of Louis XVI., and was present at Versailles on the notable 5th and 6th of October 1789. On the breaking up of the garde du corps, Maine de Biran retired to his patrimonial inheritance of Grateloup, near Bergerac, where his sequestered residence and limited income preserved him from the horrors of the Revolution. It was at this period that, as he says himself, he “passed per saltum from frivolity to philosophy.” The forced leisure of this fearful time decided the vocation of his life. He combined, in a more than ordinary degree, subtle sensitiveness to external influences with singular acuteness in surveying and analysing internal phenomena. The modes of the mind and their organic causes or conditions were alike submitted to his scrutiny. He began his philosophical studies with psychology, and he made psychology the study of his life. When the Reign of Terror was succeeded by calmer days, Maine de Bi ran was called to take part in the administrative and political affairs of his country. After his exclusion from the council of the Five Hundred on being suspected of royalism, he took part with his friend Lainé in the commission of 1813, which gave expression for the first time to direct opposition to the will of the emperor. After the Restoration he held the office of treasurer to the chamber of deputies, and habitually retired during the autumn recess to his native district to pursue his favourite study. He died 16th July 1824....
Maine de Biran’s philosophical reputation has suffered from two causes—the obscure, laboured quality of his style, and the unfortunate mode of publication of his writings. In all his work there is evidence of thorough originality of thinking, but in the expression of his thoughts this very originality is so far a disadvantage in that it imposes on him a mode of exposition little calculated to attract and retain the attention of a reader. During his life, moreover, but few, and these the least characteristic of his works, were formally published. An essay on habit (Sur VInfluence de l'Habitude, 1803), a critical review of Laromiguière’s lectures (1817), and the philosophical portion of the article Leibnitz in the Biographie Universelle (1819) appeared during his lifetime. A long memoir on the analysis of thought (Sur la Décomposition de la Pensée), crowned by the Institute in 1805, was. sent to press, but, for some reason, was not finally printed. His manuscripts, very large in quantity, were not made accessible in their entirety to Cousin when that writer desired to prepare a collective edition of De Biran’s works. Tn 1834 the writings above enumerated, together with the important essay entitled Nouvelles considerations sur les rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme, were published by Cousin, and in 1841 there were added three volumes by the same editor, under the title Oeuvres philosophiques de Maine de Biran. The manuscripts from which Cousin had prepared this edition were, however, in a most imperfect condition, and it was known that some memoirs to which De Biran attached the greatest importance were still in obscurity. In 1845 a large mass of manuscript was placed by De Biran’s son in the hands of F. Μ. E. Naville. The labour of preparing these for publication, interrupted by the death of Naville in 1846, was continued by his son, E. Naville, and completed, with the aid of Μ. Debrit, in 1859. The Oeuvres inédites de Μ. de Biran, 3 vols., rendered it possible for the first time to obtain a connected view of a very remarkable monument of philosophical development. In these volumes the most important work is that entitled Essai sur les fondements de la psychologie et sur ses rapports avec l'étude de la nature, which represents the completest stage of De Biran’s thinking. A later stage is represented by the fragments of a projected work entitled Nouveaux Essais d' Anthropologie, in which the psychology of the earlier treatise is developed in the direction of a somevdιat mystical metaphysic.
De Biran’s first essays in philosophy were written avowedly from the point of view of Locke and Condillac, but even in them he was brought to signalize the essential fact on which his later speculation turns. Dealing with the formation of habits, he is compelled to note that passive impressions, however transformed, do not furnish a complete or adequate explanation. With Laromiguière he distinguishes attention as an active effort, of no less importance than the passive receptivity of sense, and with Butler distinguishes passively formed customs from active habits. Prolonged meditation, evidenced in the occasional writings, prize essays, and the like of the subsequent years, brought him to the far-reaching conclusion that Condillac’s notion of passive receptivity as the one source of conscious experience was not only an error in fact but an error of method,—in short, that the mechanical mode of viewing consciousness as formed by external influence was fallacious and deceptive. For it he proposed to substitute the genetic method, whereby human conscious experience might be exhibited as growing or developing from its essential basis in connexion with external conditions. The essential basis he finds in the real consciousness of self as an active striving power, and the stages of its development, corresponding to what one may call the relative importance of the external conditions and the reflective clearness of self-consciousness, he designates as the affective, the perceptive, and the reflective. These stages are characterized with much skill and psychological acuteness, and in connexion therewith De Biran treats most of the obscure problems which arise in dealing with conscious experience, such as the mode by which the organism is cognized, the mode by which the organism is distinguished from extra-organic things, and the nature of those general ideas by which the relations of things are known to us—cause, power, force, &c. His views are always suggestive, and the best recent psychology in France is but a reproduction of some of them.
In the latest stage of his speculation De Biran distinguishes the animal existence from the human, under which the three forms above noted are classed, and both from the life of the spirit, in which human thought is brought into relation with the supersensible, divine system of things. This stage, as above said, is left imperfect. Altogether De Biran’s work presents a very remarkable specimen of deep metaphysical thinking directed by preference to the psychological aspect of experience. It is almost a solitary instance of an effort to treat psychology in a wide and philosophical manner.
The Oeuvres inédites of De Biran by Naville contain an introductory study. Special monographs on him are—Merten, Étude critique sur Maine de Biran, 1865; E. Naville, Maine de Biran, sa vie et ses pensées, 2d ed., 1874; Gérard, Maine de Biran, essai sur sa philosophie, 1876.
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MAINE-ET-LOIRE, a western department of France, lying between 47° and 47° 50' N. 1at., and between 15' E. and 1° 20' W. long., consists of the southern portion of the former province of Anjou, and is bounded on the N. by the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe, on the E. by Indre-et-Loire, on the S. by Deux-Sèvres and Vendée, on the W. by Loire-inférieure, and on the N.W. by Ille-et-Vilaine. The extreme length from north-east to southwest is about 7 8 miles; the breadth from north to south ranges from 25 to 50 miles, and the area is 2750 square miles. The capital, Angers, lies 162 miles south-west from Paris. The department is made up of two distinct regions, the line of demarcation running from south-east to north-west, and passing through Angers; that to the south consists of granites, felspars, and a continuation of the geological formations of Brittany and Vendée; to the north, on the contrary, schists, limestone, and chalk prevail. The general elevation of the latter region is but small, and none of its eminences exceed 330 feet in height; the former, on the contrary, has a surface richly varied with deep winding valleys clothed with woods and thickets, though the highest points are under 700 feet. The department belongs entirely to the basin of the Loire, which traverses it from east to west by a valley varying in breadth from about 1 to 5 miles; the bed is wide but shallow, and full of islands, the depth of the water in summer being at some places little more than 2 feet. The floods which occur are sudden and destructive....
The chief affluent of the Loire within the department is the Maine, formed a little above Angers by the junction of the Mayenne and the Sarthe (the latter in turn having previously received the waters of the Loir). All three rivers are navigable. Other tributaries of the Loire are the Thouet (with its tributary the Dive), the Layon, the Èvre, the Divatte on the left, and the Authion on the right. The latter, which has a course parallel to that of the Loire, has been supposed, but erroneously, to occupy an ancient bed of that river. The Mayenne is joined on the right by the Oudon, which can be navigated below Segré. The Erdre, which joins the Loire at Nantes, and the Moine, a tributary of the Sèvre-Nantaise, both take their rise within this department. The climate, which is very mild, shares the characteristics both of the Sequanian and of the Armorican districts. The mean annual temperature of Angers is 3° Fahr, above that of Paris; the rainfall at the same place is only 18 ’ 64 inches, but rises to 23 ’ 6 inches farther down the river, and 27‘75 as the sea is approached. Notwithstanding this deficiency of rain, the frequent fogs, combined with the peculiar nature of the soil in the southeast of the department, produce a degree of moisture which is highly favourable to meadow growths. The winter colds are never severe, and readily permit the cultivation of certain trees which cannot be reared in the adjoining departments.
Of the entire area more than one-half is arable; one-tenth is occupied by meadows; and considerably smaller areas are occupied by woods, vineyards, and heath respectively. Oxen number 225,000, pigs 100,000, and sheep 68,500; these figures represent a considerable commercial activity, as most of the animals are purchased out of neighbouring departments for the purpose of being fattened. Cholet alone exports annually 100,000 cattle, 150,000 or 200,000 sheep, and 25,000 or 30,000 pigs. The number of horses in the department is 55,000, chiefly of a race much used for light cavalry service. The cavalry school is at Saumur within this department. The production of cereals is in excess of the consumption; there are extensive areas in the valleys of the Loire and Sarthe under hemp, and linseed and colza oil are produced in quantity. The legumes of Saumur and Angers are specially prized. The wine of the department (14,000,000 gallons in 1880) is fairly good, and the white wine of Saumur is exported and sold as sparkling champagne (about 6,000,000 bottles yearly). Cider is produced, and large quantities of apples, pears, and plums are exported to the markets of Paris, England, and Russia. Floriculture is an important industry, and the forests of oak and beech abound in game (stag, roebuck, wildboar). Near Angers are slate quarries in which 3250 workmen are employed; and the “Layon-et-Loire” coal-bed produced in 1881 15,288 tons of coal and anthracite, which, however, did not supply the demand of the department. There are sandstone quarries in the arrondissements of Saumur and Baugé. Cholet, the chief manufacturing town, is famous for its pocket-handkerchiefs; it has also manufactures of linen cloths, flannels, and cotton stuffs, worsted and cotton thread factories, and bleaching works. Similar manufactures are earned on at Angers; the speciality of Saumur is the making of enamels and beads, in which it employs 600 workmen, producing goods to the annual value of 1,500,000 francs. The population of the department was 517,258 in 1876, being an increase of 141,714 since 1801. There are five arrondissements,—Angers, Baugé, Cholet, Saumur, and Segré. The capital is Angers.
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