Physical Description.— Its area, of about 7800 square miles, forms in the main a parallelogram, of 160 miles east and west, 50 miles north and south,—with a projection at the south-east and a lesser one at the north-east, which gives a breadth of 90 miles at this part, where it borders upon the ocean, while the general irregularity of this coast-line gives a sea frontage of about 250 miles. No large navigable river flows in any part, though the Connecticut river, bisecting the State during 50 miles of its course, and fed within it by several lateral streams, has been made navigable for small craft. The Housatonic, a lesser stream, flows parallel with the Connecticut, farther west. The two valleys are separated by the Hoosac range (1200 to 1600 feet high) of the Berkshire Hills, a part of the Appalachian system, and a continuation of the Green Mountains of Vermont. These, with the Taconic range on the western side of the Housatonic valley, of which the highest peak is Greylock, or Saddleback (almost 3500 feet), in the extreme north-west corner of the State, form the only considerable elevated land. Bordering on the Connecticut, Mount Tom (1200 feet) and a few other hills form conspicuous landmarks. Wachusett (2018 feet), farther east, rises from a level country. The Blue Hills in Milton are the nearest elevation to the coast, and are conspicuous to navigators approaching Boston.

The Merrimac runs for 35 miles through the north-east corner of the State, and affords valuable water-power at Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill. A few small streams, useful for mill purposes and irrigation, seek the ocean through Boston, Buzzard’s, and Narragansett Bays, running for the most part through a rolling country. The south-east parts of the State are level,—with a slightly elevated ridge (Manomet) south of Plymouth,—sandy in soil, with tracts of forest, largely white pine, and well watered by ponds. Between Plymouth and Buzzard’s Bay there is the most considerable region of untamed soil in the State, where deer are occasionally seen.

South of Cohasset the shore is sandy, with a few isolated rocky ledges and boulders. About Boston, and to the north of it, the shore is rocky and picturesque. Massachusetts Bay is a name now applied to the gulf of which the outer limits are Cape Cod and Cape Ann; but in early days it was applied to the enclosed lesser bay on its western side, now called Boston Harbour, the finest roadstead on the coast. The extreme hook of the Cape Cod peninsula forms Provincetown Harbour, which is an excellent and capacious port of refuge for vessels approaching Boston. Salem Harbour is the most considerable other haven on the bay; while on Buzzard’s Bay New Bedford has a good harbour.

The principal islands lie off the southern coast. The largest is Martha’s Vineyard, 21 miles long, with an average breadth of 5 or 6. It has in Holmes’s Hole a spacious harbour, much frequented by wind-bound vessels seeking a passage round Cape Cod. The island is interesting as the scene of Mayhew’s missionary efforts among the Indians, and it still harbours a remnant of a tribe. It has a population (4300 in 1880) formerly dependent wholly upon the sea; and of late years it has become a summer resort of much popularity. Farther east, Nantucket, an island of triangular shape, 15 miles long and 11 wide at its eastern end, is likewise the home of a seafaring folk (population in 1880, 3727), who still retain in some degree primitive habits, though summer visitors are more and more affecting its life. Nantucket Shoals, south-east of the island, is a large sandbank dangerous to navigation.

Flora and Fauna.— The original native trees and plants did not vary from what is common to New England and northern New York. The presence of a dense population has driven some out, and brought in others, including some noxious weeds. The larger wild animals have disappeared except an occasional deer; but small game still runs, and even within the municipal limits of Boston wild foxes are occasionally killed. No very large birds frequent the State, though a stray eagle is sometimes seen. Reptiles of a harmless kind are found, and three kinds of venomous snakes,—the latter even near Boston, particularly in the Blue Hills of Milton. Fish are abundant on the coast, and the cod is sometimes used as an emblem of the State, a figure of one hanging in the Representatives’ Chamber at the State House. The artificial propagation and preservation of salmon and other edible pond and river fish have been of late carried on successfully under the supervision of a State commission Geology.— Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard University says: “Geologically as well as topographically, the State is divided into four districts, which extend farther than the State limits. In the south-eastern part the whole of Cape Cod and Plymouth county is made up of rearranged glacial drift. Westward, from the shore region to the Connecticut, the rocks are of the Laurentian, Cambrian, and Carboniferous ages. The Connecticut river flows through a basin of Triassic rocks, abounding in reptilian footprints. West of this basin, to the New York line, the surface is occupied by an extensive series of highly metamorphosed rocks, the age of which is doubtful; but the series is certainly as old as the Silurian. The whole surface of the State was greatly affected by the last glacial period, as much so as Scotland or Sweden.

“The economic resources are limited. An area of about 250 square miles in the south-eastern part of the State shows Carboniferous rocks, containing several coals. The deep drift coating, the profoundly dislocated character of the beds, and the graphitic nature of the coals have made mining unsuccessful. Mines of silver-bearing lead have at times been worked in the north-eastern shore districts, and in the Connecticut valley, but without profit. Emery is now successfully worked in the western district. There are also deposits of hematite iron ores all along the border of New York, which are considerably worked. There are numerous quarries of sienite in the eastern parts of the State, some of red sandstone in the Connecticut valley, and of white marble in the western regions.”

Climate.— The climate is a trying one, showing great extremes (20° Fahr, below and 100° above), with about 42 inches of rainfall. The mean average temperature of Boston is 48° Fahr. In the interior it is a trifle lower. Changes are often 'sudden, and the passage from winter to summer is by a rapid spring. The ocean tempers the climate considerably on the seaboard. Boston harbour has been frozen over in the past, but steam-tugs plying constantly prevent now the occurrence of such obstruction.

Agriculture.— The soil, except in some of the valleys, can hardly be called naturally fertile; and sandy barrens are common in the south-eastern parts. High cultivation, however, has produced valuable market-gardens about Boston and the larger towns; and industry has made the tilling of the earth sustaining in most other parts; while the average sterility of the soil has doubtless had a strong influence in developing a sturdy yeomanry in the rural regions.

In 1875 671,131 tons of hay were cut. On the seaboard some extensive salt marshes yield a hay which is much prized. The corn crop diminished one half from 1855 to 1875. The State produced in 1880 1,797,593 bushels of Indian corn, 15,768 of wheat, 645,159 of oats, 80,128 of barley, 213,716 of rye, 67,117 of buckwheat. In 1879 the average cash value per acre of principal farmcrops was $26’71, which amount is exceeded only in Rhode Island. In the Connecticut valley tobacco is grown, 3358 acres being given to it in 1880, producing 5,369,436 lb, which gives the State the thirteenth rank in the Union. In forty years the sheep have fallen from 384,614 to 65,123 in 1880; and in the same year there were 139,861 horses and 174,859 cows. In 1880 there were 38,406 farms, of which 35,266 were owned by occupants. Most of them were between 20 and 500 acres each, nearly 12,000 having over 100 acres.

The Population and its Condition.— The State is divided into twelve congressional districts, each entitled to one representative in the Federal Congress, and representing from 151,000 to 181,000 inhabitants. It is divided also into 346 towns, and these are grouped into 14 counties, with an aggregate in 1880 of 1,783,085 inhabitants, of whom the native-born are 1,339,594, and the foreign-born 443,491. This population was divided into 379,710 families, living in 281,188 dwellings, with nearly 222 persons to the square mile, and less than an average of 3 acres to each person. Nearly every fifth person is a voter. The total vote in the presidential campaign of 1880 was 282,512. The number of persons born within Massachusetts, and living in 1880 out of the State, but within the limits of the United States, was 1,356,295. The population at past censuses has been— [table]

There were, in 1880, 31 cities and towns of over 10,000 inhabitants.

Births and Deaths.—It is calculated that to every 1000 inhabitants the births are more than 23, the marriages about 8, the deaths 18⅜, the excess of births over deaths being nearly 5. In 1880 44,217 were born, and 15,538 couples were married, while 35,292 persons died, at an average age of thirty-two years. Taking persons over twenty years of age, the deaths in 37⅛ years were 187,264, with an average age of 51‘42. During sixteen years the average age at death of all conditions was 30'18 years. In twenty years°the birth-rate to 1000 persons was 26'2, the death-rate 19'7.

Health.— A board of health, lunacy, and charity supervises the public hygiene, and the institutions for the insane and paupers. By their reports of 1880 it appears that the prominent causes of death are for the ages from birth to five—diarrhoea, diphtheria, pneumonia, scarlet fever, and obscure diseases of the brain and intestines; from five to ten—infectious diseases and obscure diseases of childhood; from ten to fifteen—diphtheria, consumption, and typhoid fever; from fifteen to twenty—consumption and typhoid fever; from thirty upward—pneumonia and heart disease, with cancer from forty to sixty. Paralysis and apoplexy gain after forty, and after seventy the greatest portion die of old age. The twelve principal causes of fatality in all ages are placed in this order:—consumption, pneumonia, diphtheria, heart disease, old age, cholera infantum, paralysis, cancer, scarlet fever, cephalitis, bronchitis, and apoplexy; and by these disorders 60 per cent, of all deaths occur. Intermittent fever was known in the earlier history of the State, but in this century, before 1877, was practically unknown, except in the form of an occasional epidemic; but since that date it has made rapid progress in the western parts.

Paupers.— Other tables of the same board show that in July 1880 19,318 paupers were receiving, wholly or in part, local or State support; and the same was true of about 3000 insane persons. The average number of inmates of these charitable establishments (State, city, and town) in 1880 was 7467 persons. At public and private insane asylums there were 4398 cases within the year.

Immigration.— The immigrants from Europe during the year ending September 30, 1880, were 33,636 in number, of whom one-third were Irish, and the males in comparison with the females were as 18 to 15. A large part of this influx merely passed through the State to the west.

Business and Finance; Commerce and Manufactures.— Up to 1830 the commerce of the State found various outlets besides Boston; but since then this city has more and more absorbed the whole foreign trade. The whaling business still remained to other ports, and at one time gave occupation to a thousand ships. The introduction of petroleum gradually diminished this resource of the lesser ports.

The packing of pork and beef was formerly centred in Boston; but, while now a similar business tenfold as large is done, it has been greatly exceeded in the west. For many years Massachusetts controlled a vast lumber trade, drawing upon the forests of Maine, but the growth of the west has changed the old channels of trade, and Boston carpenters now make large use of western lumber. The American trade with China and India was begun in Salem, and was next controlled in Boston, till this also was lost some years ago to New Yoι , k. In commercial relations the chief port of Massachusetts attained its highest influence about forty years ago, when it was selected as the American terminus of the first steamship line (Cunard) connecting England with the United States, but Boston lost the commercial prestige, then won, by the failure of the State to develop railway communication with the west, so as to equal the development effected by other cities. It was between 1840 and 1850 that the cotton manufactures of Massachusetts began to assume large proportions; and about the same time the manufacture of boots and shoes centred here, and has ever since maintained its prominence, much more than one-half of all boots and shoes manufactured in the country being the product of this State. Again, ice and granite became important articles of export; and Quincy granite, from 1849, was sent to various southern ports, having an importance as a building-stone which it has hardly lost now, with the later multiplication of varieties of such stones. Medford ships began to be famed shortly after the beginning of the century, and by 1845 that town employed one quarter of all the shipwrights in the State. From 1840 to 1860 Massachusetts-built ships competed successfully for the carrying trade of the world. Before 1840 500 tons made a large ship, but after the discovery of gold in California the size of ships increased rapidly, and the lines of their models were more and more adapted to speed. The limit of size was reached in an immense clipper of 4555 tons, and the greatest speed attained in a passage from San Francisco to Boston in seventy-five days, and from San Francisco to Cork in ninety-three days. The development of steam navigation for the carrying of large -cargoes has driven this fleet from the sea. Hardly 18 per cent, of the exports and imports through Massachusetts is now carried in American bottoms. The grain elevators, which pour corn in bulk into ships at Boston to-day for European markets, are the result of the first attempt at such transportation, made in 1843, when citizens of Massachusetts sent corn to starving Ireland.

Coastwise steam lines, supported by Massachusetts capital, had run to Philadelphia and Baltimore for some years before the civil war broke up other less successful ones, which had connected ports farther south. When the war and steam navigation put an end to the supremacy of Massachusetts wooden ships, much of the capital which had been employed in navigation was turned into developing railroad facilities, and coastwise steam lines. An effort to establish a European steam line failed. In 1872 the great fire in Boston, destroying $72,000,000 worth of property, made large drains upon the capital of the State, and several years of depression in business followed, to be succeeded by an era of business prosperity still continuing. The imports of Boston—practically of Massachusetts— for 1880 were $68,649,664; the exports, $69,178,764. In 1880 322 steamships sailed from Boston for European ports. In 1880 180 steam craft were owned in Massachusetts, with a capacity of 48,917 tons. Massachusetts had in 1880 a fleet of 376 sail of codfishing vessels, manned by 4185 men,—three quarters of all belonging to one port, Gloucester. In mackerel catching 239 vessels are employed. In 1882 20,117 persons were actively engaged in the fisheries, and it was estimated that 100,000 people depended on them for support. The capital invested is $14,334,450, and the product is worth $8,141,750. The total tonnage of the State in 1881 was 430,182, which gave the State rank after New York and Maine. In 1880, of 39,921 business houses, 329 failed, with liabilities at $3,336,954.

A general Act of 1870, with supplements of later years, allows of the incorporation of companies under it, and in 1880 such corporations, so organized, had $30,150,255 capital,—and this was in some part money disengaged of late years from navigation and its attendant branches of trade.

While the capital of the State may not have developed even yet, as it might, all that is possible for a system of railway communication with the west, it has fostered, and made possible, large facilities in the States of the Mississippi valley and beyond, which may in time so enlarge the terminal facilities of the State’s chief port as to make it a more important outlet for export of the produce of the west, and give it a distinction justly its due from its geographical position.

In the working of ores the State is not prominent. Five furnace« in 1880 yielded 19,000 tons of pig iron. In wool, the Boston market is the largest in the country. The State has far more spindles (4,465,290) in cotton manufacture than any other State, and not much short of half the number in the whole United States (10,921,147). She employs in this business 62,794 hands, or about one third of the entire force so employed in the United States.

Massachusetts is the only State in the east, manufacturing textile fabrics, where ten hours is the operative’s day; and it is reported by the State bureau of statistics that, equal grades being considered, as much is produced under her system, per pian, loom, or spindle, as in States where eleven hours or more is the rule, and that the Massachusetts operative earns as much or more per day. Canadian French now constitute a considerable proportion of the factory hands. In certain departments of labour Chinese are beginning to find employment.

Formerly farmers’ daughters of native stock were much employed in factories. Operatives of foreign birth or parentage have taken in great part their places; and those of native stock have sought other occupations,—largely in the manufacturing of small wares in the cities, and particularly in departments of trade where skilled labour is essential. Household service is seldom now done, as it formerly was, by women of native stock,—persons of Irish, Swedish, and Scottish origin, with many from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, taking their places.

Railways.— The report of the Railroad Commissioners for 1880 shows twenty-nine street railways; capital, $6,144,000; assets, $10,173,079'84; total income, $3,711,378'18; expenses, $3,003,024'87; length of roads, 240 miles; miles run, 12,516,363; passengers carried, 68,631,842.

Of steam railways there were 3044 miles of single track, of which 1893 were main lines; and 27,057 Massachusetts stockholders held $78,806,559'95 capital stock of the total of $118,738,871'58; and 21,615 persons were employed. The total income of these roads was $35,140,374 '77; and the dividends declared were $5,987,718'64. Total passengers carried, 45,151,152; freight carried, 17,221,567 tons. There were to passengers in 1880 nine fatal and fifteen other accidents; and one hundred and fifty-seven other persons were injured on the roads.

The Hoosac Tunnel—after that of Mont Cenis the longest in the world, 5(∣ miles in length—pierces the Hoosae mountain in the north-west corner of the State, and opens a second direct railway communication with western lines, that of the Boston and Albany having been long without a rival. It cost $9,000,000, the State lending its credit, and was built between 1855 and 1874.

Savings Banks, <I.∙c.— In 1880 the number of open accounts was 706,395; amount of deposits, $218,047,922'37 (only exceeded in New York); amount of earnings, $11,894,710'60; ordinary dividends, $7,957,887'09; annual expenses, $581,274'35; number of outstanding loans (none exceeding $3000) 32,320, aggregating $34,203,951'81. The number of banks in 1880 was 164, against 22 in 1834. The number of co-operative saving fund and loan associations was 16, with $372,462'31 assets.

National Banks.— The report of the comptroller of the currency for 1880 says: “The thirteen States having the largest capital [in national banks] are Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, &c. . . . in the order named.” In 1879 the capital of national banks in Massachusetts was $94,748,172, that of New York being $85,706,942. In 1881 there were 242 such banks, with $95,605,000 capital, and $525,827 dividends, and in 1880 they issued $3,693,885 in circulating bills,—Pennsylvania with $2,036,890 coming next

A report to the commissioner of internal revenue, for the six months ending May 31, 1880, shows Massachusetts to have 218 banking and trust companies, private bankers, and savings banks (not organized under the national law), with an aggregate capital of $5,638,099; average deposits to the amount of $208,822,039. These banks also held investments in United States bonds, amounting to $22,909,377.

Public Debt, <bc. — The public debt of the State, January 1, 1881, was $32,799,464; the sinking funds, $13,050,192'20; the trust funds $2,890,650'92. The total taxable value was $1,927,855,430'09. The taxes produced $4,950,000. The rate of State taxation is much smaller than that of any other State. The State receipts were on account of revenue $7,881,198; on account of funds, $5,616,418, or $13,497,616 in all.

The Boston stock exchange stands next to New York in the extent of the securities in which it deals.

Citizens of Massachusetts (16,855 in number) hold 45,138,750 of the United States bonds, and the proportion of holders (23'04 per cent.) to the population of the State is in excess of that of all other States; New York, which is next, shows 20'24 per cent.

In 1881 the State contributed $2,699,681 as internal revenue to the Federal treasury, being a twelfth rank among the States and Territories.

Social Statistics.—Intellectual Life. — No statement of the influence which Massachusetts has exerted upon the American people, through intellectual activity and even through vagary, is complete without an enumeration of the names which, to Americans at least, are the signs of this influence and activity. In science, John Winthrop, the most eminent of colonial scientists; Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford); Nathaniel Bowditch, the translator of Laplace; Benjamin Peirce; and Morse the electrician; not to include an adopted citizen in Louis Agassiz. In history, Winthrop and Bradford laid the foundations of her story in the very beginning; but the best example of the colonial period is Thomas Hutchinson, and in our day, Bancroft, Sparks, Palfrey, Prescott, Motley, and Parkman. In poetry, the pioneer of the modem spirit in American verse was Richard Henry Dana; and later came Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, and Holmes. In philosophy, and the science of living, Jonathan Edwards, Franklin, Channing, Emerson, and Theodore Parker. In oratory, James Otis, Fisher Ames, Josiah Quincy, jun., Webster, Choate, Everett, Sumner, Winthrop, and Wendell Phillips. In fiction, Hawthorne and Mrs Stowe, not to embrace the living and younger names of Howells and Aldrich. In law, Story, Parsons, and Shaw In polite scholarship, Ticknor and Hillard. In art, Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Washington Allsten, William Μ. Hunt, Horatio Greenough, W. W. Story, and Thomas Ball. What in America was called the “transcendental movement ”—which sprang out of German affiliations, and swept in its train many scholarly persons, and resulted in the well-known community of Brook Farm, under the leadership of the late Dr George Ripley—was a growth of Massachusetts, and in passing away it left, instead of traces of an organization, a sentiment and an aspiration for what was called a higher thinking, which gave Emerson his friendly sympathizers. It might go without saying that a community which fostered such persons and feelings was not at all times free from riotous·and unbalanced ideas, which could inaugurate too many departures from the common course of wisdom.

Education. — Of the 307,321 children between five and fifteen in Massachusetts, 281,757 attend the public schools, in addition to 25,020 over fifteen, and 1833 under five; while 27,370 of all ages attend charitable,. reformatory, and private schools. The public schools are 5570 in number; the academies and private schools, 423. The cost of maintaining the public schools is $5,156,731 per annum. This expenditure is exceeded only in the States of New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. It is a little more in Iowa.. A board of education (the governor, lieutenant-governor, and eight others) have the general charge, and their secretary acts as superintendent of the State system in conjunction with local superintendents and committees. Women are eligible to these positions, and among the teachers of the public schools they are largely in excess,—7462 women and 1133 men; and of the combined number (8595) 2228 had attended normal schools. The male teachers on an average receive $67'54 per month; the women, $30'59. The system includes common, nigh, and normal schools, with one normal art school, and various evening, industrial, and truant schools. No discrimination is made as to race, colour, or religious views. The average attendance is 89 per cent, of the membership. Two-fifths of one per cent, of the native population are illiterate. The State normal schools, where the teachers are trained, are five in number, besides the art school. The attendance upon them was 841 in 1880. Some of the cities and towns maintain their own training schools. Meetings of teachers are held once a month or offener in various parts of the State, for comparison of views and experience.

The high schools are 215 in number, with 18,758 pupils and 494 teachers; and other secondary instruction is given in the business colleges, private academic schools, and the more distinctive preparatory schools, which send their graduates to the colleges. Of these last the most important is Harvard College, the chief department of what is known as Harvard University, which includes in addition various professional schools, and other colleges of special studies. This university in 1882 had 1382 students, with a staff of 200 officers and instructors; and of these students 823 belong to the academic department (Harvard College), where they are allowed wide latitude in the choice of the studies pursued. The classes of undergraduates are recruited largely from the State; but the establishment of examinations for admission in distant cities, like Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St Louis, and San Francisco, is increasing the proportion who come from other parts of the country. Harvard University is mainly at Cambridge, 3 miles from Boston, but some of the departments are in the latter city.

In the extreme west of the State is Williams College, which in 1880 had 227 students; and in the Connecticut valley is Amherst College, with 339 students. Boston University, in its several departments, had 510 students in 1880; and Tufts College, a few miles from Boston, an institution supported by the Universalist sect, had 63 students. Two Roman Catholic colleges are maintained,—Boston College with 80 students, and College of the Holy Cross, at Worcester, of about the same size. Of the various institutions for the instruction of women, two rank with the colleges formen,—Smith College at Northampton, and Wellesley College, not far from Boston. The income of college funds ($425,958) is only exceeded in New York ($710,164).

For agricultural students there are two schools,—one supported by the State at Amherst, and the Bussey Institution, a department of Harvard University. In technological science there is special instruction given in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston), the Lawrence Scientific School (of Harvard University), the Free Institute of Industrial Science (Worcester), and the School of all Sciences (Boston University). In theology, nearly three hundred students in 1880 were divided among the schools at Andover (Congregational), at Boston (in connexion with the university, Methodist), at Cambridge (Harvard University, non-sectarian, and an independent Episcopal school), at Somerville (Tufts College, Universalist), at Newton (Baptist), and at Waltham (New Church). 1 n law there are schools in connexion with both Boston and Harvard universities; and the same is true of medicine, that of the former being of homoeopathic tendency. The State is also supplied with special schools of various other sorts, particularly those for deaf mutes, the blind, and the feeble-minded, in which noteworthy methods have been employed with success.

In 1880 the United States patent office issued letters to an average of one inhabitant of the State in every 1333, a degree of inventive energy only exceeded in Connecticut, where the proportion is one in 1020.

The total receipts of the post-office in 1880 were $2,484,692, an amount only exceeded by New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, while the State stands seventh in population.

The Press.— The earliest printing in the British colonies was done at Cambridge in this State, where, in 1640, the first book was printed, which is known as the “Bay Psalm-Book,” being a version of the Psalms, for singing, made in the colony. Cambridge still retains its pre-eminence in the University and Riverside presses. A printing-house was not set up in Boston till 1674. In the early part of this century book printing was done at various country presses; but at present i