Scotland-an accumulation which must have been the graduat result of existing causes operating continually since the establishment of the present coast line. The drift has been chiefly to N. or N.W., caused by the influence of the southerly winds.'

Since the former editions of this book were published the district has been examined and mapped by the Government Geological Survey, and further details of its structure will be found in the published sheets and accompanying memoirs referring to this part of Aberdeenshire.

The coast line of Buchan is distinguished for the variety of its flora, including some rare species, and is rich in the beauty and abundance of its mosses, lichens, and multitude of algæ. The district is as productive of mollusca as any of equal extent in any part of Scotland.*

*The statements in the preceding chapter are at the present date (1900) perhaps more susceptible of amplification than of alteration. The raising of oats and the rearing of cattle are still the main agricultural occupations, though the cultivation of " the pure Buchan breed "-otherwise known as "the Buchan hummlie "-has given way to the rearing of crosses for the London and other markets. There are now a great many auction marts throughout the district, and, as an indication of the cattle trade of Buchan, it may be mentioned that the transactions at the three auction marts at Maud represent an annual value of a million sterling. Large consignments of cattle are sent from the district to the great Christmas market in London, and, indeed, a large trade, in both live and dead meat, is conducted with the metropolis all the year round. Where special breeding is indulged in, the Aberdeen-Angus breed is the one generally selected, though the rearing of shorthorns is also practised. The Hereford breed is not now raised to any extent, but Ayrshires are still numerous on dairy farms.

Of the fishing industry of Buchan-which has assumed large dimensions since this work was first published -an

indication has been given in the chapters dealing with Peterhead and Fraserburgh; this industry is, in some respects, now undergoing an important change-see an article on "Depopulation of Fishing Villages-Migration from Slains District" in Daily Free Press, 20 March, 1900. The granite industry—a large and important one, too—has been incidentally mentioned. As to the agriculture, fishing, and commerce generally of Buchan, reference may be made to the last two chapters of "A History of Aberdeen and Banff" by William Watt (Blackwood's "County Histories of Scotland," M. DCCCC.), and to "Aberdeen and the North-East of Scotland" (Aberdeen, 1877).

Both these books may also be consulted as to the climate, geology, and flora and fauna of the district-Mr. Watt's especially for its extensive bibliography of works of reference. See also "The Geology and Scenery of the North of Scotland," by Professor James Nicol (1863); "A History of the Molluscous Animals of the Counties of Aberdeen, Kincardine, and Banff,"

by Professor William Macgillivray (1843); "A Natural History of the Fishes found on the Coast of Buchan," by James Arbuthnot, Jun. (1815); and a number of articles in the "Transactions of the Buchan Field Club," including "The Stone Age in Buchan," by William Boyd; "The Geology of Buchan," by Dr. John Milne, King-Edward; “Drift Rocks in Buchan," by John Milne, Atherb; "Crystalline Rocks in Buchan," by Dr. Trail, Fraserburgh ; "Granite and Metamorphic Rocks," by James Hendry, Coldwells; "On the Occurrence of Chalk Flints and Greensand in the North-East District of Aberdeenshire," by William Ferguson of Kinmundy; "Flora of Buchan," by Robert Walker of Richmond; "The Flowering Plants and Ferns of Buchan," by Professor Trail, Aberdeen ; and "The Avi-Fauna of Buchan" and "Migration of Birds, with special reference to Peterhead," by Rev. W. Serle. The best account of the mollusca will be found in a memoir by the late Robert Dawson, Parochial Schoolmaster of Cruden, which was communicated to the Aberdeen Natural History Society, and printed for it by John Wilson, Castle Street, Aberdeen, in 1870. It contains a full list of the marine species and also of the land and fresh water shells.

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The Buchan Field Club, at the instigation of Mr. John Gray, B.Sc., London, resolved (in 1895) to prosecute an anthropological research in Buchan, with the view of ascertaining the racial characteristics of the inhabitants of the district. Observations were conducted at the Buchan Gathering at Mintlaw that year, and a report on these observations by Mr. Gray and Mr. James F. Tocher, F.I.C., Peterhead, was published, along with a paper on Ethnographical Survey of Buchan" by Mr. Gray, in the Club's Transactions for 1892-95. Mr. Gray also read a paper on the subject in the Anthropological Section of the British Association at the Ipswich meeting, 1895. (See Daily Free Press, 17 September, 1895.) Observations were subsequently conducted by school teachers, and a paper on this survey, by Mr. Tocher (31 December, 1897), appeared in the Club's "Transactions," vol. iv.

IT

CHAPTER XXIV.

FORMER MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

T would leave our subject incomplete were we not to advert to some of the usages which formerly prevailed in this part of the world. Previous to the nineteenth century, the manners of the indigenous Scots of the middle class, who may be said to be the true representatives of a people, exhibit a very different picture from those of the age in which we live. Then, schools were rare, and the education of the masses was restricted to the merest elements of learning. But the simple and primitive manners of the people compensated, in some measure, for this general deficiency. In those days the interests of the family, from the master to the man, were a good deal confined to the household circle. The master was a kind of patriarch; the servant was attached to him by sentiments of filial affection and long habit. Thus, bound by ties of mutual interest, the homestead was their little world. Master, mistress, and domestics occupied the same room, and ate at the same board. And it is no undue stretch of imagination to suppose that under such circumstances a sense of responsibility would suggest many a homily to the young, and many a kindly lesson to all, both from the "gudewife" and from the master of the house. To this mode of living, we owe the traditionary lore of the district—

the adage, the proverb, the prophecy, and the ancient ballad-all which found a ready audience, and, doubtless, was suggestive of many a solemn warning and many a pithy moral, and, under any circumstances, must have generated a feeling of mutual affection, which their more ambitious successors look for in vain under a colder and more utilitarian system of domestic government.

FARMING IMPLEMENTS AND METHODS.-The change in the methods and implements of farming is perhaps even more striking. A hundred years ago, horses were much less used. Every farmer of any note had twelve, or at least ten oxen for every plough, with the ploughman and goadsman—the latter generally a stripling, one of whose qualifications was a capability of whistling well and cheerily, a process by which it was supposed the oxen did their work more briskly and conjointly.

-o, connecting

In a ten-oxen plough the mid throcks were wanting. The soam chain by which the plough was drawn was hooked to a staple fixed in the beam on the right-hand side, at about 15 or 18 inches from the point, and went all the way from the plough to the fore yoke. Each yoke had a staple and ring, to which the soam was hooked. The soam was raised or lowered by means of links or staffs, oit with the yoke of the foot-oxen, as more or less "yird" was required—that is, as the plough was meant to make a more or less deep furrow. It was in the steer-draught that young oxen were trained, and they were gradually brought back nearer the plough as they became older and more experienced. The "Fit-o'-land" was not considered