1o SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 
country is well suited, as climatic conditions are particularly favourable 
to the cultivation of turnips, and only to a slightly less extent so for the 
cultivation of oats. 
As a result of these agricultural conditions the distribution of population 
throughout Buchan is on the whole remarkably uniform away from the 
coast. The hilly districts naturally have fewer inhabitants; on the other 
hand, there are no large towns, only villages, such as Strichen, Maud, New 
Pitsligo and Old Deer, which serve as agricultural centres. On the coast 
there are many smaller villages which engage in line fishing, now decreasing 
in importance, but the two towns of importance are Peterhead and Fraser- 
burgh. ‘The former was in the earlier part of the nineteenth century the 
chief whaling port in the north of Scotland, but like Fraserburgh its main 
interests are now in the herring fisheries. Fraserburgh formerly provided 
an interesting case of transhumance. At the beginning of the season, which 
lasted for about three months, fishermen collected from all quarters, 
bringing with them not only their boats and tackle, but their wives, 
children, and even some of their domestic furniture. ‘This practice, 
however, appears almost to have passed away as a result of the introduc- 
tion of steam drifters and motor boats. 
DEVERON TO SPEY.—To the west of the Deveron and upper Ythan the 
land lying north of the hills which border Strathbogie is merely a con- 
tinuation of the Buchan peneplain, and, though somewhat higher, seldom 
much exceeds 7oo ft. Farther to the west the lowland becomes more 
contracted as the Highland hills advance to the north. The Deveron 
itself rises in the wild recesses of the Cabrach and flows through the region 
in a series of west to east and south to north stretches, the result of various 
captures which have taken place in the past. The greater part of the 
surface is covered with boulder clay, the character of which varies with 
the underlying rocks. 
In the eastern part of the region economic conditions are not very dis- 
similar from those of the Buchan peneplain ; nevertheless the warmer 
climate of the coast of the Moray Firth is beginning to make its influence 
felt, and barley and sugar beet are among the crops grown. Farther 
west, in the region which contains much of the hill country of Banffshire, 
the cultivated land occupies less than one-half of the total area, and of it 
a larger proportion than usual is under grass. The upper part of the 
Deveron basin is one of the most isolated areas in the whole of the North- 
east, partly due to the trend of its river valleys preventing easy communica- 
tion with Aberdeen which would otherwise have proved its most profitable 
market. Along the coast there are a number of fishing towns the exact 
position of some of which have been described in Memoir 86 of the 
Geological Survey: ‘ The harbours of Findochty and Portnockie are con- 
structed in breached anticlines, Cullen harbour lies in the shelter of 
Cullen Bay and Sandend in Sandend Bay ; Portsoy uses a cleft in the 
igneous rocks ; Whitehills is protected from the east by the promontory 
of Knock Head ; Banff and Macduff lie on opposite sides of Banff Bay at 
the mouth of the River Deveron.’ Another point of interest with regard 
to the larger of the coastal towns, not only in the district immediately 
under consideration but from Stonehaven northwards, is that the section 
