A SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF 
ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 
I. 
ABERDEEN INITS REGIONAL SETTING 
BY 
HENRY ALEXANDER, M.A., 
LORD PROVOST OF ABERDEEN. 
Tue North-east of Scotland, projecting, as it does, into the North Sea, and 
cut off from the south by the Grampian range of mountains, possesses a 
definite regional character which is reflected in the history and develop- 
ment of the district and in the attributes and interests of its people. The 
City of Aberdeen, with a population of 167,258 (census of 1931), is the 
largest centre of population in the region, the next largest town being 
Peterhead (population 12,545). As a manufacturing town, as a seaport 
with shipping connections and extensive fisheries, as a business centre for 
the agricultural and stock-feeding industries of the region, and not least as 
the seat of a university and other educational institutions, Aberdeen has 
varied and notable activities, while its isolation from all the other large cities 
of Scotland has contributed to its importance and emphasised its distinc- 
tiveness. 
The three counties which are generally regarded as forming the North- 
east—Aberdeen (population, excluding City of Aberdeen, 133,178), 
Banff (population 54,907) and Kincardine (population 39,865)—are 
similar in character, with this qualification : that the southern portion of 
Kincardine tends to incline physically and economically to Angus and the 
northern midlands of Scotland. ‘This distinction also accords with the 
dialectal boundary, marked out by Dr. William Grant in The Scottish 
National Dictionary, between South-Northern Scots and Mid-Northern 
Scots. 
While the region of which Aberdeen is the chief town is primarily 
defined in this Survey as the North-east of Scotland, it is only right to 
say that the city is closely associated educationally and commercially with 
