Hancock County, Maine
Ellsworth is the chief town. This county is bounded N. by Penobscot county, E. by Washington county, S. by the Atlantic ocean, and W. by Penobscot bay and river, and a part of Penobscot county. Its extent on the ocean is between 50 and 60 miles: it comproses numerous islands of great beauty, some of which are large, fertile and well cultivated; it comprises also numerous bays, and a vast number of coves, inlets and spacious harbors.
Perhaps there is no district of its extent on the American coast that offers greater facilities for navigation, in all its various branches, than the county of Hancock. The tonnage of Frenchman's bay, in this county, in 1837, was 13,184 tons. The soil of the county is generally of an excellent quality, particularly in the interior. There are a great number of ponds in the county: every section of it is watered by mill streams, and Union river, nearly in its centre, affords the interior part great facilities for transportation. This county contains an area of about 1,850 square miles. Population, 1830, 24,347; 1837, 28,120. Population to a square mile, 15. This county produced, in 1837, 21,446 bushels of wheat, and contained 38,870 sheep.
