y, and being
traversed continually by cold SE. winds is healthy and bracing; the
natives, of Bantu stock, are peaceful and industrious, growing rice,
maize, tobacco, and cotton, which they also weave, and working with skill
in iron; they live in dread of the fierce Matabele tribes; the country is
very rich in iron, copper, and gold, and has traces of ancient scientific
gold-mining; it has been under British protection since 1888.

MASK, IRON. See IRON MASK.

MASKELYNE, NEVIL, astronomer-royal, born in London; determined the
method of finding longitude at sea, and the density of the earth by
experiments at Schiehallion, and commenced the "National Almanack," and
produced the first volume of "Astronomical Observations at Greenwich"
(1732-1811).

MASON, SIR JOSIAH, Birmingham manufacturer and philanthropist, born
at Kidderminster; made his fortune by split rings, steel pens,
electro-plating; founded an orphanage at Erdington at the cost of nearly
L300,000, and the college at Birmingham which bears his name (1795-1881).

MASON, WILLIAM, a minor poet, a friend of poet Gray; the author of
two tragedies, "Elfrida" and "Caractacus" (1724-1797).

MASON AND DIXON'S LINE, so called after English engineers who
surveyed it 1764-67; is the boundary separating Maryland from
Pennsylvania and Delaware; during the Civil War it was inaccurately
regarded as dividing the slave-holding from the free States, Maryland and
Delaware both recognising slavery.

MASPERO, GASTON CAMILLE CHARLES, French Egyptologist, born at Paris;
made extensive explorations and important discoveries in Egypt; has
written, among works bearing on Egypt, "Histoire Ancienne des Peuples
d'Orient"; _b_. 1846.

MASSACHUSETTS (2,239), a New England State of the American Union,
lies on the Atlantic seaboard between New Hampshire and Vermont on the N.
and Rhode Island and Connecticut on the S., with New York on its western
border; has a long irregular coast-line and an uneven surface, rising to
the Green Mountains in the W.; the scenery is of great beauty, but the
soil is in many places poor, the farms raising chiefly hay and dairy
produce; the winters are severe; Massachusetts is the third manufacturing
State of the Union; its industries include cotton, woollen, worsted,
clothing, leather and leather goods, iron and iron goods; school
education throughout the State is free and of a high standard; there are
several universities and colleges, including H