been due almost exclusively to the introduction of steam trawlers. The total value of the annual catch, of which between a half and a third consists of herrings, amounts to £1,000,000. Haddocks are salted and rock-dried (speldings) or smoked (finnans). The ports and creeks are divided into the fishery districts of Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Aberdeen, the last of which includes also three Kincardineshire ports. The herring season for Aberdeen, Peterhead and Fraserburgh is from June to September, at which time the ports are crowded with boats from other Scottish districts. There are valuable salmon-fishings—rod, net and stake-net—on the Dee, Don, Ythan and Ugie. The average annual despatch of salmon from Aberdeenshire is about 400 tons.
Other Industries.—Manufactures are mainly prosecuted in or near the city of Aberdeen, but throughout the rural districts there is much milling of corn, brick and tile making, smith-work, brewing and distilling, cart and farm-implement making, casting and drying of peat, and timber-felling, especially on Deeside and Donside, for pit-props, railway sleepers, laths and barrel-staves. There are a number of paper-making establishments, most of them on the Don near Aberdeen.
The chief source of mineral wealth is the noted durable granite, which is quarried at Aberdeen, Kemnay, Peterhead and elsewhere. An acre of land on being reclaimed has yielded £40 to £50 worth of causewaying stones. Sandstone and other rocks are also quarried at different parts. The imports are mostly coal, lime, timber, iron, slate, raw materials for the textile manufactures, wheat, cattle-feeding stuffs, bones, guano, sugar, alcoholic liquors, fruits. The exports are granite (rough-dressed and polished), flax, woollen and cotton goods, paper, combs, preserved provisions, oats, barley, live and dead cattle.
Communications.—From the south Aberdeen city is approached by the Caledonian (via Perth, Forfar and Stonehaven), and the North British (via Dundee, Montrose and Stonehaven) railways, and the shire is also served by the Great North of Scotland railway, whose main line runs via Kintore and Huntly to Keith and Elgin. There are branch lines from various points opening up the more populous districts, as from Aberdeen to Ballater by Deeside, from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh (with a branch at Maud for Peterhead and at Ellon for Cruden Bay and Boddam), from Kintore to Alford, and from Inverurie to Old Meldrum and also to Macduff. By sea there is regular communication with London, Leith, Inverness, Wick, the Orkneys and Shetlands, Iceland and the continent. The highest of the macadamized roads crossing the eastern Grampians rises to a point 2200 ft. above sea-level.
Population and Government.—In 1891 the population numbered 284,036 and in 1901 it was 304,439 (of whom 159,603 were females), or 154 persons to the sq. m. In 1901 there were 8 persons who spoke Gaelic only, and 1333 who spoke Gaelic and English. The chief towns are Aberdeen (pop. in 1901, 153,503), Bucksburn (2231), Fraserburgh (9105), Huntly (4136), Inverurie (3624), Peterhead (11,794), Turriff (2273). The Supreme Court of Justiciary sits in Aberdeen to try cases from the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine. The three counties are under a sheriff, and there are two sheriffs-substitute resident in Aberdeen, who sit also at Fraserburgh, Huntly, Peterhead and Turriff. The sheriff courts are held in Aberdeen and Peterhead. The county sends two members to parliament—one for East Aberdeenshire and the other for West Aberdeenshire. The county town, Aberdeen (q.v.), returns two members. Peterhead, Inverurie and Kintore belong to the Elgin group of parliamentary burghs, the other constituents being Banff, Cullen and Elgin. The county is under school-board jurisdiction, and there are also several voluntary schools. There are higher-class schools in Aberdeen, and secondary schools at Huntly, Peterhead and Fraserburgh, and many of the other schools in the county earn grants for secondary education. The County Secondary Education Committee dispense a large sum, partly granted by the education department and partly contributed by local authorities from the “residue” grant, and support, besides the schools mentioned, local classes and lectures in agriculture, fishery and other technical subjects, in addition to subsidizing the agricultural department of the university of Aberdeen. The higher branches of education have always been thoroughly taught in the schools throughout the shire, and pupils have long been in the habit of going directly from the schools to the university.
The native Scots are long-headed, shrewd, careful, canny, active, persistent, but reserved and blunt, and without demonstrative enthusiasm. They have a physiognomy distinct from the rest of the Scottish people, and have a quick, sharp, rather angry accent. The local Scots dialect is broad, and rich in diminutives, and is noted for the use of e for o or u, f for wh, d for th, &c. So recently as 1830 Gaelic was the fireside language of almost every family in Braemar, but now it is little used.
History.—The country now forming the shires of Aberdeen and Banff was originally peopled by northern Picts, whom Ptolemy called Taixali, the territory being named Taixalon. Their town of Devana, once supposed to be the modern Aberdeen, has been identified by Prof. John Stuart with a site in the parish of Peterculter, where there are remains of an ancient camp at Normandykes, and by Dr W. F. Skene with a station on Loch Davan, west of Aboyne. So-called Roman camps have also been discovered on the upper Ythan and Deveron, but evidence of effective Roman occupation is still to seek. Traces of the native inhabitants, however, are much less equivocal. Weems or earth-houses are fairly common in the west. Relics of crannogs or lake-dwellings exist at Loch Ceander, or Kinnord, 5 m. north-east of Ballater, at Loch Goul in the parish of New Machar and elsewhere. Duns or forts occur on hills at Dunecht, where the dun encloses an area of two acres, Barra near Old Meldrum, Tap o’ Noth, Dunnideer near Insch and other places. Monoliths, standing stones and “Druidical” circles of the pagan period abound, and there are many examples of the sculptured stones of the early Christian epoch. Efforts to convert the Picts were begun by Ternan in the 5th century, and continued by Columba (who founded a monastery at Old Deer), Drostan, Maluog and Machar, but it was long before they showed lasting results. Indeed, dissensions within the Columban church and the expulsion of the clergy from Pictland by the Pictish king Nectan in the 8th century undid most of the progress that had been made. The Vikings and Danes periodically raided the coast, but when (1040) Macbeth ascended the throne of Scotland the Northmen, under the guidance of Thorfinn, refrained from further trouble in the north-east. Macbeth was afterwards slain at Lumphanan (1057), a cairn on Perkhill marking the spot. The influence of the Norman conquest of England was felt even in Aberdeenshire. Along with numerous Anglo-Saxon exiles, there also settled in the country Flemings who introduced various industries, Saxons who brought farming, and Scandinavians who taught nautical skill. The Celts revolted more than once, but Malcolm Canmore and his successors crushed them and confiscated their lands. In the reign of Alexander I. (d. 1124) mention is first made of Aberdeen (originally called Aberdôn and, in the Norse sagas, Apardion), which received its charter from William the Lion in 1179, by which date its burgesses had already combined with those of Banff, Elgin, Inverness and other trans-Grampian communities to form a free Hanse, under which they enjoyed exceptional trading privileges. By this time, too, the Church had been organized, the bishopric of Aberdeen having been established in 1150. In the 12th and 13th centuries some of the great Aberdeenshire families arose, including the earl of Mar (c. 1122), the Leslies, Freskins (ancestors of the dukes of Sutherland), Durwards, Bysets, Comyns and Cheynes, and it is significant that in most cases their founders were immigrants. The Celtic thanes and their retainers slowly fused with the settlers. They declined to take advantage of the disturbed condition of the country during the wars of the Scots independence, and made common cause with the bulk of the nation. Though John Comyn (d. 1300?), one of the competitors for the throne, had considerable interests in the shire, his claim received locally little support. In 1296 Edward I. made a triumphal march to the north to terrorize the
