When this chain formed the Atlantic mountainborder of the continent excepting this north-eastern corner, Mississippi had not emerged from the waters of the ancient Gulf of Mexico.
About 40% of the total catch of the state is made by the inhabitants of Harrison county on the Gulf of Mexico.
The territorial limits were extended on the north to the state of Tennessee in 1804 by the acquisition of the west cessions of South Carolina and Georgia, and on the south to the Gulf of Mexico by the seizure of West Florida in 1810-1813, 1 but were restricted on the east by the formation of the Territory of Alabama in 1817.
Caloosahatchee river, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico near Charlotte Harbour, is its principal outlet.
It divides the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico into two passages of nearly equal width, - the Strait of Florida, about I io m.
