is one of the chief stations at which the herring-fishery is prosecuted. 6. The port of Inverness, which may be regarded as the capital of the Highlands, is a town of some 15,000 inhabitants, near the northern entrance of the Caledonian Canal. The town stands in the midst of fine scenery, is well built, and carries on a brisk trade. 7. Campbeltown is the largest town in Argyleshire; it has noted distilleries of malt whisky, and some shipping and fishing trade. Oban (O'-ban), on the west coast, is frequented by tourists, who find it a convenient centre from which to make excursions to the most noted places for Highland scenery. 8. Rothesay (Roth'-say), in the island of Bute, is a finely situated little town, and a favourite resort of people from Glasgow and elsewhere. It is well sheltered, and is held in much repute for the mildness of its climate. 9. The north-eastern counties are Nairn, Elgin (g hard), Banff, Aberdeen, Kincardine (Kin-car'-din), Forfar, and Perth. 10. Aberdeen is a granite-built city at the mouth of the Dee, and contains a university attended by about 800 students, and several fine buildings. It is the fourth largest town in Scotland, containing about 100,000 inhabitants, and has manufactures of cotton, flax, wool, combs, as also ship-building, and granite cutting and polishing. Aberdeen is the chief British centre of the last-named industry. 11. Aberdeen sends great numbers of cattle as well as much dead meat to the London market, and also exports granite. The granite obtained here is of a fine gray colour. 12. Peterhead and Fraserburgh (Fra'-zer-boro) are the principal of a line of coast fishing towns. Near the former, granite of a reddish colour is largely quarried. Her Majesty's summer residence of Balmoral, on the upper course of the Dee, is a granite-built palace situated on a rising ground above the river, and commanding extensive and varied views. 13. The coast towns of Dundee, Arbroath, and Montrose, as well as the inland towns of Brechin (Brē'-kin) and Forfar, are engaged in the linen manufacture; they are easy of access both for raw materials and for coal. 14. Dundee, the third largest town in Scotland, is situated on a slope of the north bank of the estuary of the Tay; its spinning and weaving mills are large and numerous, jute is used in them extensively, and in many it is the only fibre worked. The linen and jute manufacture, and connected industries, employ 60,000 people. There is a good deal of ship-building, and regular steam communication is kept up with London and the large ports of the east coast, 15. The imports are flax and hemp from the White Sea and the Baltic, timber from Scandinavia and North America, whale blubber from the Arctic Seas, and jute from Calcutta. The blubber is boiled in Dundee, and almost the whole of the oil obtained is used in spinning the jute. Marmalade, jams, and sweetmeats are made in large quantities in Dundee. 16. Perth (population, 26,000) stands on the Tay in the midst of beautiful scenery. It was anciently a place of much importance: the Scottish kings often lived at Scone in the neighbourhood; they were wont to be crowned at the abbey of Scone. Perth has an increasing trade, both inland and export, with extensive dye-works, flax and jute works, and machine works. LESSON 20.-THE GRANITE CITY.1 1. An old and a new quarter of a town is a common feature enough, but it is not often that we find them so severed as Aberdeen. Old and new form two towns, enjoying different kinds of life; the one allotted to religion and study, the other the seat of commerce and industry. 2. Old Aberdeen seems dropped down upon its site by chance, resting with one end by the river Don, a mile or so away from the sea. New Aberdeen stands on the left bank of the Dee, where that river makes the last curve in its course before entering the North Sea. The New Town is only new in relation to the Old Town; many centuries have passed since the title was first given to the little port and fortress at the Dee-mouth. 3. The passing stranger, when he sees from the railway or the sea the gray masses of houses, the reader when he 1 Adapted from Our Own Country, by permission of Messrs. Cassell & Co. meets with the name Aberdeen, never thinks of that cluster of modest houses, those silent streets about the gray old cathedral and the gray old college, which form Old Aberdeen. Their inmates can pass a life as calm and peaceful as in the smallest minster town in England, while the streets of New Aberdeen are thronged, and her quays are crowded with the all-bustle of a busy port. 4. New Aberdeen at the present day wears a very different aspect from what it had half a century since. New streets and buildings have been erected; the course of the Dee has been altered, the navigation improved, and the channel spanned by bridges. The railway from the south crosses the Dee and is at once joined by the line from Balmoral. 5. There is something imposing in the title of the Granite City; but granite, though durable, is hard to work it resists alike the tooth of time and the chisel of the mason-and some of its tints are neither rich nor warm. The town is almost entirely built of gray granite, so its colour is somewhat grim in cold weather, and looks a little chilly even when the midsummer sun is doing its best in this northern clime. The beautiful ruddy stone, sometimes called in mistake Aberdeen granite, comes from Peterhead, 30 miles away. The style of the buildings is plain, many of the houses indeed show flat walls with oblong holes cut in them for doors and windows. 6. Still, the stranger will find even in the New Town a great deal to interest him. The finest street is Union Street, with its eastern extremity Castle Street, in which stands the Old Market Cross. Marischal College, founded by George Keith, Earl Marischal, in 1593, is one of the pair which make up the University of Aberdeen, the other being King's College in Old Aberdeen (founded in 1494). 7. The level plain, fringing the low hills on which Aberdeen stands, was once part of the sea-bed, and many tracts have been reclaimed from the estuary of the Dee, near the town itself, within the memory of man. Where once were muddy flats we now find busy wharves and docks. 8. The manufactures of the town are woollen, cotton, linen, paper, rope, combs, and articles of granite; and there is a good deal of ship-building. The town carries on a large trade with the north of Europe. Granite is an important export. In the Market Hall, a building 100 yards long, the visitor may study the produce of the neighbouring sea and land. Fish is in plenty, vegetables, |