MOLLUSCAN INVESTIGATION IN ABERDEENSHIRE NORTH 133 



of vegetation, consisting of iris, meadowsweet, nettles, hairy 

 woodrush, umbellifers, etc. The tops of the cliffs, allowing 

 for a path, are fenced from the cultivated land by barbed 

 wire, and covered with ling, heather, and benty grass. 



The Bay of Cruden has a sandy beach, with sandhills 

 between it and the cultivated land. 



South of Aberdeen, to Muchalls in Kincardineshire, 

 precipitous cliffs of the same kind flank the coast, having 

 in every way the same characteristics as the coast between 

 Collieston and Cruden Bay. The slopes in some instances 

 are more generally covered with a mixed kind of vegetation 

 perhaps than those north of Aberdeen. The tops of the 

 cliffs are railed off from the farmed land, which is under 

 similar cultivation to that in Aberdeenshire. There are 

 numerous grassy slopes immediately south of the River Dee, 

 which are used as grazing ground for sheep. 



In the neighbourhood of Peterhead similar physical 

 features prevail as in South Aberdeenshire, with low, undulat- 

 ing hill-country under similar cultivation, though much of the 

 grass-land is rough and coarse, but evidently suited for 

 sheep-farming. 



The coast south to Cruden Bay is rocky, and really a 

 continuation of that already described between Collieston and 

 the southern end of Cruden Bay, only broken by the sand- 

 hills of the Bay itself. This portion of the coast is not so 

 much broken up as the more southern portion, and there are 

 fewer chances of getting down to the shore. Of beach there 

 is very little, as the sea-water on most of this part of the 

 coast is always up to the base of the cliffs. On the portion 

 of the coast between Longhaven and near to Peterhead there 

 are granite quarries, the cliffs being cut for the Peterhead 

 granite. 



North of Peterhead town to Rattray Head the coast is all 

 sandhills, similar to those immediately north of Aberdeen, 

 the part near the sea overgrown with marram and other 

 grasses, and the portion between this and the cultivated area 

 is occupied by golf courses, and kept clear of long grass, as 

 these links generally are. There are odd patches of woodland 

 near St Fergus, and on the river side at and below Inverugie. 



