PREFACE 



THE purpose of this little book is simple enough, but 

 difficult of achievement. It is meant to interest in- 

 telligent people, holidayers included, in what is to be 

 seen and enjoyed, enquired into and understood, in 

 the wonderful Aladdin's Cave of the Mountains and 

 Moorland. There is no risk of interfering with rest 

 and recreation in getting interested in such subjects 

 as mountain-making or peat-making, the secret of the 

 heather, or the different ways of meeting the severe 

 winter on the hillsides. 



The fact is that people who do not at least nibble 

 at the endless brain-stretching, but not vexatious, 

 problems which their surroundings present are miss- 

 ing a good deal both of the meaning and the fun of 

 life. One of the difficulties, we believe, in the way of 

 those who are organically interested in the world 

 without is to make a start; and one of the objects of 

 our simple studies is to supply the requisite introduc- 

 tion and a jumping-off place for individual investi- 

 gations. Each of our chapters may serve as a centre 

 around which personal information will gather and 

 crystallise, till the centre is hidden. References here 

 and there to books may be of use as guide-posts to 

 further adventures in the unending endeavour to 

 understand our environment. 



J. ARTHUR THOMSON. 



THE UNIVERSITY, 

 ABERDEEN, 



September, 1920. 



