The Black Swans 



all of artificial production. Wood 

 therefore is precious, as are many- 

 other things in the North Country — 

 a shilling most of all. In the Lothians 

 or the Trossachs and on Tweedside 

 you will not feel that sense of bleakness 

 that impressed me after I crossed 

 for the first time the great bridge at 

 Dundee en route to Aberdeen to be the 

 guest of an ever-hospitable community. 

 Up there on the western shores of the 

 North Sea (let us no longer say the 

 German Ocean) a thrifty, intelligent 

 and industrious people have wrought 

 more out of little than I have seen 

 produced elsewhere in either hemis- 

 phere. Along the coast the deep-sea 

 fishing is an important industry, but 

 it is in the shallow depths of certain 

 stony soils drained by the storied 

 Don, say at Sittyton or Collynie, that 

 you find the most amazing things 

 accomplished. If you care to know 

 what can be made from just turnips 

 (the "neeps" of colloquial Scotch) 



