CHAP. IX. PETERHEAD HARBOUR, 393 



improvements carried out to suit the convenience of the 

 growing traffic and trade of the country. 



The principal works were those connected with the 

 harbours situated upon the line of coast extending from 

 the harbour of Peterhead, in the county of Aber- 

 deen, round to the head of the Murray Frith. The 

 shores there are exposed to the full force of the seas 

 rolling in from the Northern Ocean ; and safe harbours 

 were especially necessary for the protection of the 

 shipping passing from north to south. Wrecks had 

 become increasingly frequent, and harbours of refuge 

 were loudly called for. At one part of the coast as 

 many as thirty wrecks had occurred within a very 

 short time, chiefly for want of shelter. The situation 

 of Peterhead was peculiarly well adapted for a haven 

 of refuge, and the improvement of its port was early 

 regarded as a matter of national importance. Not far 

 from it, on the south, are the famous Bullars or Boilers 

 of Buchan bold rugged rocks, some 200 feet high, 

 against which the sea beats with great fury, boiling and 

 churning in the deep caves and recesses with which they 

 are perforated. Peterhead stands on the most easterly 

 part of the entire mainland of Scotland, the town stand- 

 ing" on the north-east side of the bay, and being connected 

 with the country on the north-west by an isthmus only 

 800 yards in breadth. In Cromwell's time the port pos- 

 sessed no more than twenty tons of boat tonnage, and its 

 only harbour was a small basin dug out of the rock. 

 Even down to the close of the sixteenth century the 

 place was but an insignificant fishing village. It is now 

 a town bustling with trade, having long been the prin- 

 cipal seat of the whale fishery, 1500 men of the port 

 being engaged in that pursuit alone ; and it sends out 

 ships of its own building to all parts of the world, its 

 handsome and commodious harbours being accessible at 

 all winds to vessels of almost the largest burden. 



It may be mentioned that about sixty years since 



