was called at Brunswick, in 1796, for the selection of a location. This town is on a sandy plain, south of the Androscoggin river. The plain is slightly elevated, nearly a mile south of the river; and this spot was chosen as the most desirable situation for the college. Although the uninterrupted level of the ground, and the dark green of the pines and firs, render the scenery of Brunswick rather monotonous, yet, by its quiet retirement, it is well adapted for the seat of an institution of learning. Shortly after, the brick building, called Massachusetts hall, was erected, and received the name which it still bears.

The boards assembled, in July, 1801, for the election of a president. The Rev. Dr. M'Keere, from Beverley, Massachusetts, was chosen; ar Mr. John Abbott was chosen professor of languages. They were inducted into office on the 2d of September. Also, at this time, eight students were admitted to the institution. The services were performed on a stage which was raised under a grove of evergreens, near to the college. In 1804, Mr. Samuel Willard entered the college as tutor, and the following year Mr. Parker Cleaveland was installed professor of mathematics and natural history. Mr. Bowdoin had given one thousand acres of land toward this professorship.

The first commencement of this college was in 1806, when the honors of the institution were conferred upon seven young men. The name of Richard Goff, Esq., of Boston, stands first on the list of graduates. This was the only commencement at which President M'Keene was allowed to preside, for, in July of the following year, he was removed by death from the scene of his labors.

proaching our country. It is 41 miles east-northeast from Machias, 176 miles east from Augusta, and 279 miles eastnortheast from Portland. It contains 2,500 inhabitants.

Moose island, on which Eastport is situated, lies in Passamaquoddy bay, and is four miles long, surrounded by deep water, and connected with Lubec by a ferry, and with Perry by a bridge. The village is in the south part of the island, and is a place of considerable business; the lumber-trade and fishing being carried on with activity.

BANGOR. This city is situated on the west side of the Penobscot, at the head of navigation, on an elevation which commands an extensive view. There is a bridge across the river, 1,329 feet in length; and the place contains a courthouse, a jail, seven churches, a bank, two academies, and a population of fifteen thousand. It is thirty-five miles north from Castine, sixty-five northeast of Augusta, and two hundred and twenty-two miles from Boston, with which communication is held by steamboats, touching at Portland, to which latter place rail-road trains run daily. An extensive trade in lumber is carried on at Bangor. The distance from the sea, at Owl's Head point, is thirty miles.

The spot now occupied by the town was in a wilderness only about fifty years ago. The region above, lying in the valley of the Penobscot, and naturally tributary to Bangor, is an area of nine thousand square miles. The water-power is abundant, and applicable to a great variety of machinery. There are few places in the Union which possess greater advantages of this kind. The lumber-trade, which has formed the chief source of business and prosperity, EASTPORT, on Moose island, occupy must necessarily decrease; but the clearing the extreme point of the coast of the ing of the land will as naturally be acUnited States on the eastern border, is companied with the extension of agria spot interesting alike for its military culture and the increase of its more importance and its natural features. valuable products, which will of course The ground is rocky, and rises abruptly seek their vent through this town. Navfrom the western shore of St. Croix igation is active during the summer-seariver, to a considerable eminence, which son, and much transportation is peris crowned by the fort, on which waves formed in the winter in sleighs. The the first American flag that greets the soil in the neighborhood is good for eye of a traveller from the east, on ap-brickmaking.

Bangor, on account of its rapid growth, as well as its important position, and the beauty of its situation, is the place of the greatest note in the interior of the state. The Kenduskeag enters the Penobscot nearly at right-angles, dividing the town into two parts, and diversifying the surface in the environs with high and picturesque banks. The town appears to great advantage on approaching it from down the valley of the Penobscot, as it is gradually disclosed to view, displaying its numerous clusters of houses spread up the rising grounds and over the more level surface on the summit of the bank. On the northwest side of the town the eminence commands an extensive and charming view, Mount Katahdin appearing in the distance, in clear weather, though more than seventy miles off, its head often capped with

snow.

Judge Williamson's History of Maine informs us, that the first settlement was made in this place in the year 1769, when only one family became the inhabitants. A second followed in the course of 1770; and two years later there were twelve families. In 1787, the first public meeting was held, to procure a pastor and a place for public worship; when the Rev. Seth Noble, a whig refugee from Nova Scotia, was appointed, and received his ordination under the shade of an oak-tree. He received a salary of four hundred dollars from the people residing on both sides of the river, and remained there twelve years. appointed, in 1791, to procure an act of incorporation from the Massachusetts legislature; and, although the people proposed to call the place Sunbury, the present name was chosen.

He was

die," on leaving the pulpit he dropped down dead. Five years afterward the building was destroyed by fire; and, in 1831, a handsome brick edifice was erected in its place.

In 1828, three houses for public worship were commenced, by societies of methodists, baptists, and unitarians, and several others were erected a few years later; and, in 1832, a large courthouse, with county offices, and a jail.

The Theological Seminary has three professors, about fifty students, and a library of seven thousand volumes. The classical and theological course occupies four years. It was instituted, in 1815, to prepare young men to preach the gospel. A tract of five acres of land was given to the institution by Isaac Davenport, of Milton, Massachusetts, on which the present fine building stands. It is of brick, four stories high, and enjoys an elevated and commanding situation. A second edifice, of a similar description, with houses for the professors, was afterward planned. The institution is under the direction of a board of trustees, and has a fund of about a hundred and twenty thousand dollars.

The Bangor House is one of the ornaments of the town. It is constructed on a plan resembling that of the Tremont house in Boston, and was built in 1836.

There is a bridge across the Penobscot, and three across the Kenduskeag. Two of the latter were built by individuals.

The first printing-office was opened in Bangor in the year 1815, by Peter Edes. The first bank was established in 1818; and banks have since been multiplied to supply the demands of the extensive lumber-business and navigation carried on here. The ice interrupts the river-trade during four or five months in the year; but the river is generally open to Frankfort, twelve miles below.

The courthouse (now the city-hall) was the first public building erected in the place, in 1812. It was occupied for public worship, as well as for various other public purposes, until 1822. That The first railroad in the state was that year the first meetinghouse was built, from Bangor to Oldtown, in Oxford counby the only religious society existing ty, twelve miles of which was opened in there. The Rev. Harvey Loomis, who 1836, at an expense of $250,000. was ordained in 1811, officiated in it un- The market-house is large, and well til 1822, when, having preached a new-planned. A rural cemetery, on the plan year's sermon, on the 2d of January, of that of Mount Auburn, near Boston, from the text, "This year thou shalt was laid out in 1836, two miles from the

CASTINE, the capital of Hancock county, occupies a promontory on the east side of Penobscot bay, and has a good harbor, always open, and accessible to large vessels. It is in latitude forty-four degrees and twenty-four minutes, seventy-eight miles from Augusta, and a hun-ceived its name. They passed up Windred and twenty-two east-northeast from Portland. Pop. 2,000.