In parts of the parish, beneath the soil, the sub-stratum consists of sand, mixed with remains of marine testacea. There are also indications along the coast that the land has been gaining on the sea.

The parish of Crimond carries on the coast two miles further. Beach and sandhills form the predominating features, except at Rattray Head, where there is a long ridge of low lying rocks, called Rattray Brigs, running at right angles to the shore, and extending a mile and three-quarters in an easterly direction into the German Ocean. Great part of this ridge is only visible at low water. These rocks seem to con

sist of granite, whinstone, and trap, and limestone also occurs in various places. The principal feature of interest on this part of the coast is the existence of a large lake, called the Loch of Strabeg. In A. D. 1700 this loch was of very small extent, and open to the sea, so that small vessels could enter it. About 1720 a severe easterly gale silted up this communication. The loch now covers an area of about five hundred and fifty acres, and it receives all the streams of the neighbourhood. It has no outlet, and is wholly fresh. Its average depth is about three and a half feet, and it is being gradually filled up with the detritus carried into it by the streams. I said there is no outlet to it, but it is very apparent that the overplus of the waters finds its way to the sea, through the sandbank which separates the loch from the ocean. This belt of sand is, however, about half a mile in breadth.

From Rattray Point, four miles carries us over the seaboard of Lonmay parish, a flat sandy beach, trending considerably to the westward. Two miles more cover the parish of Rathen, one point of which, that of Cairnbulg, runs out northwards into the sea, the coast line receding again south-westward, so as to form a very considerable bay between it and Kinnaird's Head, immediately to the south of which last lies the town of Frasersburg.

The coast line of Frasersburgh parish extends about four miles; two miles of this to the south of the town are low and sandy; the rest is rocky, but not high, except at Kinnaird's Head, which, forming the turning point of the Moray Firth, stands out a high and bold headland. The rocks on the coast are gneiss and mica slate. Mormond Hill, lying to the south, in the interior is quartz rock surrounded by gneiss. Its height is eight hundred and ten feet. the upper end of the town of Frasersburgh limestone occurs, and is quarried for building purposes. Limestone also occurs in the parishes of Lonmay and Rathen.

At

Westward the two parishes of Pitsligo and Aberdour complete the district of Buchan in the shire of Aberdeen, in this direction. The real boundaries of Buchan proper are the Doveron on this side, and the Don to the south.

The coast line of Pitsligo is four miles in length. My impression of its appearance from a ride along the coast was, that from Frasersburgh to Rosehearty it was sandy, rising into considerable hills, and at low water presenting low flat rocks beyond the beach. Onwards from Rosehearty towards Aberdour it is very different, rising the whole way in an uninterrupted mural line of blackened and rifted precipices. I stayed two days one summer at Braco Park, about a mile west from Rosehearty. To wile away a forenoon we went

to fish from the rocks. The house was about a quarter of a mile from the sea. A single field lay between. To within a hundred yards of the edge of the cliff this field presented a steep descent. At that point a little marshy hollow was carpeted with Anagallis tenella, or the pale bog pimpernel, and starred with the beautiful Parnassia palustris. Vaulting a three foot wall of loose stones, five or six yards more took us to the cliffs. These are so precipitous that there are but one or two places where it is possible to descend them. In descending, we passed a fissure going down plumb

to the water quite narrow, with equidistant sides perfectly vertical, in which the swell was roaring far into the earth with a hollow sound. This and numerous other fissures run further into the cliffs than the most adventurous have ever yet penetrated. Of this particular one it is related that in it a too curious explorer lost his life. He took with him the national musical instrument-the bagpipes, that he might indicate by their strains to his friends on the earth how far he had penetrated into it. It requires too great credulity to believe all that is told as to the length of time his music was heard, or the distance inland at which the decreasing sounds were audible; one thing is certain, they ceased at last, nor did he ever return to tell how he had fared.

About half way down the.rocks a broad platform expanded, from which, by various perilous ways, it was possible to reach near the water, but at no point to attain it. Seated here on a jutting crag, with our legs hanging over the deep green water, nought was to be seen but the wide expanse of ocean before us, unscaleable walls on either hand, and behind the rugged precipices, our line of descent adown their faces scarcely discernible. Westward, like a dim haze, rose into mid air the old red sandstone cliffs of Troup-Head, the long roll of the Moray Firth every now and then sending a cloud of spray far up their rugged sides, while they stood out as if in bold defiance or proud contempt of its buffetings. The features of solitude are periodically changed during the season of the herring fishing; at least for an hour or two every evening, when the boats from Frasersburg may be seen shooting out in crescent form from east to north-west, and those of Rosehearty stretching away to join them in an inner segment. It is a lovely sight to watch them from these rocks on a July or August evening, as the line of boats attenuates, and they gradually grow indistinct and dim in the distance, till the scene which was but now instinct with life, and that a life

N

full of the excitement of the deep and its perils, is again resigned to the wild solitude and undisputed sovereignty of ocean. Such is a rude picture from this rock-bound coast.

On the afternoon of the same day we rode along the cliffs as far as Aberdour. The same stupendous cliffs are witnessed; but the colour of the rocks changes from the greys and blacks of the gneiss and the mica slates to the reds and browns of the old red. All along this coast deep glens run into the interior, so narrow and so steep in their declivities that it is necessary to make the roads zig-zag down their sides, and so up again. In these dens, as they are called, such as the Den of Aberdour, the Den of Auchmedden, the Den of Dardar, the climate is so mild that stations for many of the rarer plants of our country are found in them. I only specify the rare and beautiful Trientalis Europaa. Caves abound in the sea-cliffs, several of which derive a deep local interest, from their having afforded hiding places, after the battle of Culloden, to Lord Pitsligo, the Jacobite lord of all that land. There is also to be seen at Pitjossie a stupendous natural arch, through which the tide flows at high water, and said in grandeur and magnificence to equal, if not surpass, the Bullers of Buchan. But the astonishing feature of the latter spot is not the arch, but the basin into which the waters flow.

Gamrie, with its famous fish-beds, follows Aberdour. On these I do not enter. Beyond Banff, at Boyndie Bay, the chalk flints occur, as we shall see immediately, when we trace the course and extent of this curious deposit.

We now turn to the consideration of the chalk flints.

Running slightly to the south of west, there is a ridge of high ground, taking its rise nearly at Buchan-ness, and stretching across the country continuously for eight to ten miles;

They

at its eastern extremity it branches One of the forks terminates south of Bnchan-ness in the mass of granite already mentioned, under the name of Stirling Hill. The other runs north of Buchan-ness, and may be said to terminate in the granitic escarpment of the Black hills. All along the shore, wherever between these points the rocks admit of a beach, quantities of water-worn flints are found mingled with the other pebbles, evidently brought there by the waves. are also found, although sparingly, on the southern ridge, or Stirling hill. But on the Black hill, and neighbouring hill of Invernettie, the surface is almost covered with them. This ridge, at the distance of about seven and a half miles from the sea at Salthouse-head, attains an inland distance of about five miles from the coast opposite Slains. The flints are met with on the surface at various points along that line. The ridge is bare and moorish, but covered with peat and heather, and this prevents the flints from being accurately traced. At this point, however, seven and a half miles along the ridge, and five miles from the sea, they have been laid bare.

They occur at the extreme verge of the parish of Old Deer, and are principally seen at the farm of Bogingarrie, on the lands of Kinmundy. The ridge of hill here trends to the north, coming round again towards the west, so as to expose to the south a deep bay, with a considerable slope to the south. The hill is covered with moss and heather, and is partly planted. The south face of the hill has been under cultivation for the last forty years. The flints are seen on the surface, commencing pretty far up on the east side of the hollow, and following at the same height the crescent form of the bay, disappearing among the heather, which has not yet been removed, on the extreme west. They are in great abundance, covering a space of from twelve to twenty yards in breadth.

About 1830, in cutting a ditch to carry off the surface