I 7 6 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



cleared away to permit of the formation of Union Street 

 from 1800 onwards, a change of vital importance in the 

 growth of the city. The streets were few and extended 

 along the higher parts of the naturally undulating site, but, 

 as in most towns of the same age, they did not extend far, 

 although Aberdeen does not seem to have been hindered in 

 its expansion by a city wall for defence. Gordon's map and 

 description show that gardens and trees were numerous, 

 covering the slopes of the ridges on which the streets lay, 

 and that fields were cultivated close to the town, where the 

 soil was suitable ; but they also show large marshes in the 

 hollows, and a loch covering several acres now under 

 streets. 



Moors and rough broken ground strewn with boulders 

 and ice-borne debris covered much of the surface at a short 

 distance from the town, and formed a surrounding belt of 

 several miles in width, except in the lower part of the valleys 

 of the Dee and the Don. Maps of considerably more recent 

 date show these features almost unchanged, and the area 

 covered by streets was little extended until towards the close 

 of the eighteenth century. About the middle of that 

 century efforts were directed to bring parts of the rough 

 ground around the town into cultivation ; and great progress 

 was made in this direction during the next fifty years. In 

 many cases it cost large sums to clear the surface of the 

 stones, exceeding 30 per acre in some places ; but much, 

 if not all, of the cost is said to have been repaid by the price 

 obtained for the stones, which were exported for building 

 and for other uses. From 1 800 onwards Aberdeen spread 

 over a rapidly enlarging area, especially from 1860 to 

 1900; and the municipal limits were moved outwards 

 several times. In 1893 they were determined as at present, 

 occupying an extent of more than ten square miles, bounded 

 by the Don on the North and including a strip of 

 Kincardineshire south of the Dee. 



Within this area the surface has undergone very great 

 changes ; moors and marshes have almost completely dis- 

 appeared, the soil having been drained and converted into 

 agricultural ground where fit to be so used, or covered with 

 buildings, or roads and streets, or enclosed as pleasure-grounds 



