in New Hampshire, the source of the Great Ossipee, and there is a mountain near it, both of which have the name of Ossipee. 10. DESCRIPTION OF THE FACE OF THE COUNTRY, ETC. As you travel from Portland west toward Limerick, a new description. of country commences when you cross the Little Ossipee into Limerick. Yon leave a country generally level, and clayey or sandy, and you enter upon a hard soil, and meet with more rugged hills; and as you travel west from Limerick, you find the hills swelling to mountains, but amidst these mountains are level tracts affording an opportunity for making easy roads. From Limerick the White Mountains are visible in part, distant about forty-five miles in a straight line; and Mt. Washington may be seen with the tracks of its slips, like the avalanches of the Alps, very distinctly marked, when not covered with snow.

Within

11. STATE OF MORALS, RELIGION, AND LEARNING. fifteen years there has been a very obvious improvement in morals. The number of professors of religion of all denominations has doubled in this time. The use of ardent spirits has declined so that perhaps not more than one-third the former quantity is drank; and criminal prosecutions have much diminished. The number of people who attend worship in the center of the town, is four times greater than it was fifteen years ago. The Calvinist Baptist church has increased some, and there are now forty professors of this denomination in town. The Congregational church has more than tripled, and now contains seventy-nine members; and the Free Will Baptist professors in town have increased from about forty to about one hundred and forty in the whole town. There is a general desire for learning, and the Academy is well frequented, and numbers of young men and young women from Limerick are employed as school teachers in neighboring towns. There are five young men from the town now in several colleges. Seven young men of the town are practicing physicians in different places. One only has yet entered into the profession of the law. A newspaper is printed in the town, for the Free Will Baptist denomination, which circulates in most States of the Union.

LIMERICK CORNER is a compact village. It contains thirtyseven dwelling-houses and thirty-eight families. In 1824, it con

tained thirty-two families and twenty-nine dwelling-houses. It

III. AN ACCOUNT OF WELLS.

BY JEREMIAH HUBBARD AND JONATHAN GREENLEAF.

Prepared, July, 1825.

SITUATION AND BOUNDARIES. This town is situated in north latitude forty-three degrees and twenty minutes, and west longitude seventy degrees and thirty-five minutes. It is bounded on the south-west by a line which divides it from the town of York, beginning at the west corner of Wells bay, and running northwest nearly eight miles to a noted spring, called "Baker's spring," at the east corner of Berwick; thence by Berwick line about north by west to the south corner of Sanford, thence north-east by Sanford about four miles to a small river, commonly called the Branch river; thence by said river, which divides it from Kennebunk in nearly a south-east direction to the sea, and thence by Wells bay, in a direction nearly south-west, eight miles and a half, to the bounds first mentioned; containing about thirty-five thousand acres. The original grant included the town of Kennebunk, and was nearly double to what is above stated.

RIVERS AND HARBORS. The town of Wells is well watered. There are nine small rivers or brooks running through the town in various directions, which have water sufficient to carry mills a part of the year. On these streams there are now in operation, sixteen saw-mills, ten grist-mills, and one fulling-mill. One

'The name of this spring is said to have arisen from the following circumstance. A man named Baker, who was active in bringing King Charles the First to the block, fled from England on the accession of Charles the Second, and concealed himself for some time in the wilderness near the spring.-See Mass. Hist. Col., vol. 3, p. 8.

of these streams runs in a south-west direction into Berwick; the others run south-easterly, and after they fall into the marsh form three rivers which run into the sea. The principal of these rivers is near the center of the town. The Indians called it Webhannet river, but it is now generally called "the town river." At the place where it discharges itself into the sea, a considerable harbor is formed, but a bar of sand renders the entrance into it somewhat difficult. In common tides the depth on the bar at high water is about nine feet, and at low water not more than two feet. Anciently, all the traveling from York to Saco was on the beach, and the river was forded on the bar. In the southerly part of the town, the Ogunquit river forms another harbor which can be entered by small vessels only; the depth of water there being but about eight feet. There is one remarkable fact respecting this river. Within the memory of men now living, its outlet into the sea has shifted nearly a mile. It formerly ran out about where it now does; but in a great storm the outlet became somewhat obstructed, and the main river broke through the beach nearly a mile to the eastward. The river having thus found vent, its former channel was wholly filled. However, the river gradually wore away the beach, and with it a small island which lay very near to it, and in a few years regained its former channel, where it has ever since remained.

At the session of Congress in January, 1824, a grant was made to Wells of the sum of five thousand dollars, for the purpose of improving the main harbor in the town. With this aid a pier of eight hundred feet in length was erected in the summer of 1825.

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS. Wells contains a great variety of soil, though its general character is sandy. Without being at the trouble of actual survey, it may be presumed that the following estimate of the quantities of the different kinds of soil in the town may be relied on as tolerably correct:

Low and heathy land, mostly covered with bushes, but capable

of improvement,

Barren heath,

Ledges and beaches, generally unimprovable,

Pitch-pine plains, scarce worth improving,

Sandy and gravelly land, rather poor,

Land capable of improvement, but covered at present with wood and timber,

Total,

800

600

900

5,000

9,400

10,000

35,000

It will be perceived by the above estimate that about six thousand five hundred acres of land in Wells, being almost a fifth part of the whole town, may be considered waste land, being barren heaths, ledges, beaches, and pitch-pine plains. The plains, however, are still valuable for what wood and timber may remain on them. It will also be seen that nearly one-fourth part of the town is considered as poor land, viz: the sandy and gravelly soils. They are improved, but require much manure, or they will scarce pay for the labor of cultivation. The salt marsh is generally considered poor, some parts of it having failed very much within the memory of the present inhabitants. The average crop of hay on the marsh does not exceed half a ton from the acre, but the hay is considered of a very good quality. The time of cutting the marshes is during the neap tides in August and September. They were formerly cut a month or two later, and it has been thought by some that early cutting has injured them.

The heathy land is capable of being made very productive. Some experiments have been made upon it, enough to show that when subdued, it will become some of the most valuable land in the town. Experiments have also been made on what is termed the fresh marsh, which is a strip of heathy land lying between the salt marsh and the high land. In some places it is ten or twelve rods in width, and is generally covered with alder-bushes. It is seldom, if ever, flowed by the sea. This ground may be ploughed in the dry part of the season, and with considerable labor and expense may be subdued. It will then afford a heavy burden of the best grass, and is not liable to bind out like the higher lands. Had the inhabitants heretofore depended less on their salt marshes, and paid more attention to the cultivation of