GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH-EAST II 
of the town actually engaged in fishing is always built on a lower level— 
often a low raised beach—than the remainder. This of course was 
necessitated by the need of easy access to the sea, but it led to a segregation 
by the fishing folk which has had important social results. 
The chief inland towns of the region are Turriff, Huntly and Keith. 
All are route centres and because of this have become agricultural market 
towns. 
ABERDEEN.—Having surveyed the region of which Aberdeen is the 
capital, we now turn to that capital itself. To its growth land and sea 
have alike contributed. Placed just north of the most easterly of all the 
passes across the Mounth, and between the mouths of the Dee and the 
Don, it also lies at the apex of the Buchan plain which constitutes the most 
fertile part of its hinterland. The original settlement may have been at 
the mouth of the Don (whence the name Aberdon which in the local 
dialect became Aberdeen), but the mouth of the Dee offered a useful 
harbour while that of the Don did not. ‘The town at the mouth of the 
Dee may or may not have originated as a Teutonic settlement ; at any rate 
about 1180, when it received a charter, it was a trading centre and port, 
while the Church of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of traders, is of even 
earlier date. For centuries Aberdeen was mainly dependent upon its 
hinterland, the products of which—wool, hides, furs and salmon—were 
exported to the Continent. Later on Flemish weavers introduced the 
woollen industry, and in the seventeenth century town and country were 
alike engaged in the manufacture of cloth, just as in the eighteenth century 
they were in that of hosiery. With the Industrial Revolution domestic 
industries became of less importance, and Aberdeen, far from coal, was 
at a disadvantage, though some compensation was found in the water 
power of the lower Don, and the paper-making and woollen industries 
established there have persisted. For a short period in the middle of 
the nineteenth century Aberdeen became noted for the building of 
wooden ships, such as some of the China clippers, but the most important 
feature of modern times has been the development of the fishing industry 
with all the subsidiary industries connected therewith—fish-curing, 
marine engineering and shipbuilding. Aberdeen now takes third place 
among the fishing ports of Great Britain. 
The growth of Aberdeen during the nineteenth century is indicated by 
the fact that the population increased from 27,000 at the beginning of the 
century to 153,000 at the close, and is now over 167,000, 
