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THE

SUPPLEMENT

TO THE

PENNY CYCLOPÆDIA

OF

THE SOCIETY

FOR THE

DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

VOLUME I.

ABATI GYROSTEUS.

LONDON:

CHARLES KNIGHT AND Co., 22, LUDGATE STREET.

MDCCCXLV.

Price Twelve Shillings, bound in cloth.

399.d.234.

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LOCAL COMMITTEES.

Cambridge-Rev. Leonard Jenyns, A.M., F.L.S. Rev. John Lodge, A.M.

Rev. Prof. Sedgwick. A.M., F.R.S. & G.S. Canterbury-John Brent, Esq.

William Masters, Esq.

Carlisle-Thomas Barnes, M.D., F.R.S.E. Carnarvom-R. A. Poole, Esq.

William Roberts, Esq.

Chester-Henry Potts, Esq.

Chichester-C. C. Dendy, Esq.
Corfu-John Crawford, Esq.

Plato Petrides.

Coventry-C. Bray, Esq.

Denbigh-Thomas Evans, Esq.

Derby-Joseph Stratt, Esq.

Edward Strutt, Esq., M.P.

Devonport and Stonehouse-John Cole, Esq.
John Norman, Esq.

Lt. Col. C. Hamilton Smith, F.R.S.
Durham-The Very Rev. the Dean.
Edinburgh-J. S, Traill, M.D.
Exeter J. Tyrrell, Esq.

John Milford, Esq. (Coaver.)

Glamorganshire-W. Williams, Esq., Aber- Pesth, Hungary-Count Szechenyi.

pergwm.

Glasgow-Alexander McGrigor, Esq.

James Cowper, Esq.

A. J. D. D'Orsey, Esq. Guernsey-F. C. Lukiss, Esq.

Hitcham, Suffolk-Rev. Professor Henslow,
A.M., F.L.S. & G.S.

Hull-James Bowden, Esq.
Leeds-J. Marshall. Esq.
Lewes J. W. Woollgar, Esq.
Henry Browne, Esq.
Liverpool Local Association-
J. Mulleneux, Esq.
Maidstone-Clement T. Smyth, Esq.
John Case, Esq.
Manchester-

Sir Benjamin Heywood, Bart.
Sir George Philips, Bart., M.P.
T. N. Winstanley, Esq.

Merthyr Tydvil-Sir J. J. Guest, Bart., M.P.
Minchinhampton-John G. Ball, Esq.
Neath-John Rowland, Esq.
Newcastle-Rev. W. Turner.

T. Sopwith, Esq., F.G.S.

Newport, Isle of Wight-Ab. Clarke, Esq.
T. Cooke, Jun., Esq.

R. G. Kirkpatrick, Esq.
Newport Pagnell-J. Millar, Esq.
Norwich-Richard Bacon, Esq.

Wm. Forster, Esq.

Orsett, Essex-Dr. Corbett.

Oxford

Ch. Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S., Prof. Chem. Rev. Baden Powell, Sav. Prof.

Rev. John Jordan, B.A.

Plymouth-H. Woollcombe, Esq., F.A.S. Wm. Snow Harris, Esq., F.R.S.

E. Moore, M.D., F. L.S.

G. Wightwick, Esq.

Presteign-Rt. Hon. Sir H. Brydges, Bart.

A. W. Davis, M.D.

Ripon Rev. H. P. Hamilton, A.M., F.R.S., G.S. Rev. P. Ewart, A. M.

Ruthin-The Rev. the Warden.

Humphreys Jones, Esq.

Ryde, Isle of Wight-Sir R. Simeon, Bt.

Salisbury-Rev. J. Barfitt.

Sheffield-J. H. Abrahams, Esq.

Shepton Mallet-G. F. Burroughs, Esq.
Shrewsbury-R. A. Slaney, Esq.

South Petherton-John Nicholetts, Esq.
Stockport-H. Marsland, Esq.

Henry Coppock, Esq.
Swansea-Matthew Moggridge, Esq.

Sydney, New S. Wales-W. M. Manning, Esq.
Tavistock-Rev. W. Evans.

John Rundle, Esq., M.P.
Truro-Heury Sewell Stokes, Esq.
Tunbridge Wells-Dr. Yeats.
Uttoxeter-Robert Blurton, Esq.
Virginia, U. S.-Professor Tucker.
Worcester-Chas. Hastings, M.D.
C. H. Hebb, Esq.
Wrexham-Thomas Edgworth, Esq.
Major Sir William Lloyd.
Yarmouth-C. E. Rumbold, Esq.
Dawson Turner, Esq.

York-Rev. J. Kenrick, A.M.

John Phillips, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S.

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SUPPLEMENT

ΤΟ

THE PENNY CYCLOPÆDIA

OF

THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF

USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

[The abbreviations P. C. and P. C. S. signify the Penny Cyclopædia and Penny Cyclopædia Supplement.]

ABA

ABATEMENT OF LEGACIES.

p. 391.]

[LEGACY, P. C., ABATI, or ABBAʼTI, NICCOLO', was born at Modena in 1512. He is more frequently called Dell' Abate, but erroneously, according to the showing of Tiraboschi, as his family name was Abati. Before Tiraboschi, Niccolò's surname was supposed to be unknown, and the name of Dell' Abate was given to him from the circumstance of his being less known for his own works than as the assistant of Primaticcio, who was called L'Abate by the Italians after he was made Abbé of St. Martin near Troyes, by Francis I. of France. Abati executed in fresco the Adventures of Ulysses and other works from the designs of Primaticcio, for the palace of Foninebleau, the decoration of which was intrusted to Primaticcio after the death of I! Rosso. Prints from the Adventures of Ulysses, by Van Thulden, were published in Paris in 1630: the original works were destroyed with the building, in 1738, to make room for a new structure.

Abati's own works however, in Modena and Bologna, were productions of the greatest merit, according to the Carracci; and in the celebrated sonnet of Agostino, which is a sort of recipe for making a great painter, he is mentioned in conclusion as combining in himself all the required excel

lences:

Ma senza tanti studi e tanto stento
Si ponga solo l'opere ad imitare

Che qui lasciocci il nostro Niccolino.'

There are few of Abati's works remaining, and these are chiefly frescoes; he seems to have painted comparatively little in oil. It is not known who his inaster was, or whether he had any other master than his father Giovanni Abati, who was an obscure painter and modeller of Modena. From a similarity in his works to the style of Correggio, some have supposed that he was a pupil of Correggio; he is also said to have studied under the sculptor Begarelli: if so, he was probably well acquainted with Correggio, with whom Begarelli was intimate.

ABE

Of the works in the Institute Zanotti has written an account- Delle Pitture di Pellegrino Tibaldi e Niccolo Abbati,' &c., in which there are engravings of them: Malvasia also has given a laudatory description of them: they have been compared with the works of Titian. The Nativity of the Leoni Palace, which has been engraved by Gondolfi, is mentioned in the highest terms by Count Algarotti, who discovered in it the symmetry of Raphael, the nature of Titian, and the grace of Parmegiano.' Of his casel-pictures in oil the most celebrated is the Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul, a large picture on wood, which was painted for the Church of the Benedictines at Modena, in 1546. It is now in the Dresden Gallery, and has been engraved by Folkema for the Recueil d'Estampes après les plus célèbres Tableaux de la Galerie de Dresde.'

From about 1546 until 1552, when he accompanied Primaticcio to France, Abati lived in Bologna, and his Bolognese works were painted during this interval: he died in Paris, in 1571.

Abati's principal faculty was painting in fresco, in which he had surprising facility. According to Vasari he never retouched his works when dry, which cannot be said of many fresco-painters; yet, says Vasari, the paintings of an entire apartment were executed with such uniformity that they appeared to be the work of a single day. Abati excelled in landscape, for his period: there is a Rape of Proserpine in the Duke of Sutherland's collection, of which the background is an extensive landscape; it was formerly in the Orleans Gallery, and was sold at the sale in this country for 1607.

Several of Abati's relations also distinguished themselves as painters: his brother Pietro Paolo was a clever horse and battle painter; his son Giulio Camillo, his grandson Ercole, and his great-grandson Pietro Paolo the younger, were all painters of ability, especially Ercole, who was born in Modena in 1563, and died in 1613; he executed, with B. Schidone, the frescoes of the council-hall of Modena.

(Vedriani, Vite de' Pittori di Modenesi; Tiraboschi, Notizie de' Pittori, &c. di Modena.)

His earliest essays upon his own account were in partnership with another painter, Alberto Fontana, a practice not unusual at that period in Italy, when there was little or no distinction between artists and artisans in the manner of employing them or estimating their works. In 1537 he painted Rev. Mr. Abercrombie, for many years one of the town-miniswith Fontana, at Modena, some frescoes in the butchers' ters of Aberdeen. Edinburgh was at the time the most distinmarket, by which he obtained some reputation; and he ac-guished seat of medical education in the empire. Applying his quired great distinction by some frescoes in the Scandiano mind to that branch of professional knowledge, Abercrombie Palace, from Ariosto and the Eneid of Virgil, which are studied in the Scottish metropolis, and took his degree there on still extant; they have been engraved by Gajani. These, the 4th of June, 1803. He entered into practice subsequently conversation-pieces and concertos in the Institute in Edinburgh, and became a Fellow of the Royal College of of Bologna, a Nativity of Christ under the portico of the Surgeons in the year 1805, thus qualifying himself to teach Lasni Palace, and a large symbolical picture in the Via di surgery, and taking the highest professional rank in that class. San Mamolo, in the same city, are the only frescoes now ex- However, though he so far combined the practice of a surgeon tant by Abati; and his oil-pictures are likewise very scarce. with that of a physician even in his early career, according P. C. S., No. 1. VOL. I.-B

ABERCROMBIE, JOHN, M.D., Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of Edinburgh, &c., was born on the 11th of November, 1781. He was the son of the

with some

to a common Scottish custom, his disposition was better suited | west-south-west, from Rattray Head between Peterhead an! to the pursuits of the pure physician; and into these he fell Fraserburgh to the junction of the three counties of Perth, altogether soon after the decease of the celebrated Dr. Gre- Inverness, and Aberdeen, 88 or 89 miles; and its greatest gory in 1821. Dr. Abercrombie from that time began to oc- breadth at right angles to the length, from the border of the cupy the most prominent position as a practising and consult-county of Banff, near the town of Banff, to the mouth of the ing physician, not only in Edinburgh but in all Scotland, and Dee, 38 miles. A small part of Banffshire (the parish of St. he was often called to great distances in the country. He Fergus) is insulated by this county and by the sea near Peterbecame a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in head. The area of Aberdeenshire, including the few lochs, 1823, and in 1824 was admitted a Fellow of the body. While which are small, is estimated at 1970 square miles (some statereceiving subsequent honours from his colleagues, his high ments make it rather less); it is in size the fifth of the position in after-life also gained for him many complimentary Scottish counties, being 668 square miles less than Perthshire, distinctions from other quarters. In 1834 the University of the next county above it, and 169 miles greater than SutherOxford marked their estimation of his character and talents by landshire, the next below it. The population at the different conferring on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Medi- enumerations in the present century was as follows:-1801, cine-a somewhat rare mark of respect to the alumni of 123,082; 1811, 135,075; increase in ten years 10 per cent.; Scottish universities. In the year 1835 Dr. Abercrombie was 1821, 155,387, increase 15 per cent.; 1831, 177,657, increase elected Lord Rector of the venerable Marischal College of 14 per cent.; 1841, 192,283, increase 8.2 per cent. In the Aberdeen. Of the other honours bestowed on him by public ten years from 1821 to 1831 the rate of increase slightly and private bodies, we need only notice his appointment to exceeded the average of Scotland; but during the rest of the vice-presidency of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the period it has been below the average. According to the to the office of physician in ordinary to her Majesty for Scot- census of 1831, which we retain to facilitate comparison, there land. The numerous subsidiary places which he held, most of were 90 persons to a square mile. It was then the third of the which were connected with benevolent societies, need not be Scottish counties in amount of population, being exceeded only enumerated. Dr. John Abercrombie died suddenly on Thurs- by Lanarkshire and Edinburghshire; and the thirteenth in day, November 14, 1844, at his house in York Place. On a density of population, being next below Kinross-shire and next post-mortem examination, it was found that the bursting of the above Elginshire. According to the census of 1841 it retains coronary artery of the heart had been the immediate cause of its place in the scale both of amount and density of popudeath. lation: it had then betwen 97 and 98 inhabitants to a square mile.

The writings of Dr. Abercrombie contributed no less to the establishment and maintenance of his fame than his singularly Coast-line. The coast of Aberdeenshire has a tolerably useful career as a practical member of his profession. In the regular outline, for the most part convex to the sea. From early part of his course he confined his literary labours to the the mouth of the Dee, which separates the county from KinEdinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, and other pe- cardineshire, it preceeds in a tolerably direct line for 12 miles riodicals in his own department of science. His first distinct north by east or north-north-east to the mouth of the Ythan. work of moment, leaving out of consideration published cases The Don and several smaller streams fall into the sea in this of disease and similar minor treatises, was one entitled part of the coast: the mouth of the Don is about two miles 'Pathological and Practical Researches on Diseases of the north of the mouth of the Dee; the outfal of the other streams is Brain and the Spinal Cord,' Edinburgh, 1828, 8vo. In this more to the northward. From the Ythan the coast at first runs work, which is characterised by no ordinary degree of purely a little more to the eastward, but turns gradually to the north, scientific knowledge, he also gave an indication of the bent of north-west, and west, forming nearly a semicircle of about 55 his genius to the study of mind and its relations to the miles, measured along the shore to the mouth of the little stream body. He published about the same time another professional which separates the county from Banffshire. In this semicircular volume, and one which elevated him still more highly among sweep the coast has several headlands, but of little prominence : the modern cultivators of medicine, styled Pathological and they are White-ness, Briggs-head, Bows-ness, Boddam or Practical Researches on the Diseases of the Intestinal Canal, Buchan-ness, Invernetty-point or Salthouse-head, InchkeithLiver, and other Viscera of the Abdomen,' Edinburgh, 1828, point (the last three in Peterhead parish, and near the town Svo. Dr. Abercrombie seems now to have directed his of that name), Rattery or Rattray-head, Tillyduff-point, thoughts to higher objects; and his two subsequent works form Cairnbulg-point (all three between Peterhead and Fraserthe most permanent monument to his memory. He began to burgh), and Kinnaird's-head near Fraserburgh. Fergus-head throw together the medical facts accumulated in the course of or Scotstown-point is in the detached part of Banffshire, behis extensive experience and reading, and to examine their tween Inchkeith-point and Rattray-head. Buchan-ness and bearings on the various metaphysical and moral systems that Inchkeith-point are the easternmost points of the mainland of have been established. The result of his labours is to be found Scotland: they are in 1° 45′ W. long. There is a lightin two works: the one entitled Inquiries concerning the In-house 118 feet high, built of granite, with what is termed a tellectual Powers and the Investigation of Truth,' Edinburgh, flashing light,' on Buchan-ness. The bays between the mouth 1830, 8vo.; and the other called "The Philosophy of the of the Ythan and the point where the boundary between this Moral Feelings, London, 1833, 8vo. The latter is in some county and Banffshire meets the coast, are-Cruden bay, bemeasure a sequel to the first, and the whole composes a view of tween Briggs-head and Bows-ness; Invernetty or Sandford human nature intellectually and morally, in which the facts of bay, between Buchan-ness and Salthouse-head; Peterhead science and the revelations of religion are combined together bay, between Salthouse-head and Inchkeith-point; St. Fergus in peculiar harmony. The best of these two works in every bay between Scotstown-point (in the detached part of respect is perhaps that on the Intellectual Powers. It is not Banffshire) and Rattray-head; Strathbeg or Strabeg or so much the product of profound original research, as the re- Rattray bay (which at low water becomes a loch, communisult of the quiet meditations of a superior mind aided by all cating with the open sea by a narrow passage adjacent to the advantages of much reading and large practical experience. Rattray-head on the north-west); Fraserburgh bay, between The work is more reflective than penetrative or suggestive. Cairnbulg-point and Kinnaird's-head, Fingus bay, west of In particular the light thrown by the author on those curious Kinnaird's-head; and Aberdour bay, near the Banffshire cases of spectral illusions which have so long interested the boundary. medical profession, is a proof at once of Dr. Abercrombie's powers and skill in his profession, and of his capacity for investigating the difficulties of mental philosophy. In so brief a sketch as the present it is impossible to do full justice to such a man as Dr. Abercrombie. For range of acquirements, solid as extensive, he stood unequalled among the Scottish physicians of his day. He earned by his writings a name that will not be forgotten, and he will long be remembered, as a private individual, for his singular piety and benevolence.

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ABERDEENSHIRE, à maritime county in the east of Scotland, bounded on the north-east and east by the North Sea, on the south-east by Kincardineshire, on the south by Forfarshire, on the south-west by Perthshire, on the west by Inverness-shire, and on the north-west by Banffshire. Its form is irregular, having its greatest length from east-north-east to

The coast from the border of Kincardineshire northward to the mouth of the Ythan is comparatively low and shelving: from the mouth of the Ythan it assumes a bolder character, being skirted in some places by rocks rising 170 or 200 feet above the level of the sea. These rocks are penetrated by some remarkable fissures and caverns which formerly afforded great facilities for the concealment of smuggled goods. The rocks are chiefly of black basalt, gneiss, mica slate, or red granite. About Peterhead they form mural precipices. Some of the bays which indent this generally bold coast have a flat beach of sand or pebbles. North of the Ugie, which joins the sea just to the north of Peterhead, the shore loses its abrupt and lofty character, and presents a line of clay hills covered with an accumulation of drift sand; near Rattray-head there is a ridge of rocks projecting into the sea, by which at high

water they are covered. Beyond Rattray-head the coast is low and sandy to Kinnaird's-head, a promontory of considerable height; westward of which the coast is sometimes sandy, sometimes lined with rocks, in which are some remarkable Caves. One of these caves served as a hiding-place to Lord Pitsligo after the battle of Culloden in 1746. There are no islands on the coast deserving of notice.

Surface and Geology. The county is generally hilly; in the south-western part it is mountainous. The crest of the principal range of the Grampians forms, for a considerable distance, the southern boundary, separating Aberdeenshire from Perth, Forfar, and Kincardine shires. A branch of the Grampians, thrown off from the principal range at Badenoch forest in the south-western extremity of the county, forms for a short distance the western boundary, and separates Aberdeenshire from Banffshire. From this branch another branch is thrown off towards the north-east; and although no distinctly marked chain of hills can be traced far, the elevation of the surface in this direction is apparent from the course of the waters; the upper waters of the Don, the Ythan, and the Ugie, flowing down the south-eastern slope, and several streams flowing down the north-western slope into the Dovern or Doveran, which belongs chiefly to Banffshire. The principal summits in the main range of the Grampians, on the southern boundary, enumerated in their order from west to east, are-Scarsoch, Craigan Loch, Gelly Cairn, Ben Uarn, Cairn Leay, Ben Barrow, Glash Mell, Aught Hill, Cairn Tagart or Taggart (about 3000 feet high), Loch na Gar (3815 feet), Hill of Mark, Mount Kean (3126 feet), Braid Cairns, Cockairns, Hill of Cat, and Mont Battack. The principal summits of the branch on the western boundary are-Cairn Toul (4220 feet), Breriach, close to Cairn Toul, and about the same height, and Ben Macthui, or Bennamuickduidh (4390 feet), ascertained by the Ordnance Survey to be 20 feet higher than Ben Nevis, hitherto regarded as the highest mountain in Great Britain. On the branch thrown off from that just mentioned, and running to the north-east, are Bennabuird (3940 feet), Ben Aven or Ben Avon, and Morven (2934 feet).

The mountain district of Braemar, in which or the neighbourhood most of these peaks are included, is chiefly granitic: the mountains frequently present tabular summits with steep precipitous sides. Ben Macdhui has on its sides precipices of more than 1000 feet high. Conical summits are not so frequent, but Cairn Toul and Loch na Gar have this form. The sides of the mountains vary in character, presenting sometimes mural precipices, sometimes slopes more or less steep: at the foot of the precipices or steeper slopes considerable masses of granitic debris are observable. The granite of Braemar is chiefly pure; the mica is the least of its constituent minerals: the felspar and quartz are in about equal proportions. Some of the granite is porphyritic. In the upper part of the valley of the Dee a large mass of syenite is found; but this belongs chiefly to Perthshire, if not entirely.

The neighbourhood of Aberdeen, extending for some miles round that city, especially towards the west, is occupied by granite. The limits of this granite district do not appear to be well ascertained, but it extends westward as far as Midmar parish, and is found even as far as Coull and Tarland parishes. The principal mass of granite forms rounded hills west of Aberdeen between the Don and the Dee, and extends to the Lorthward of the Don. The granite is neither very coarse nor very fine grained. It is quarried in large quantities (chiefly of grey granite), and shipped at Aberdeen for London and other places.

Granite is found in various other parts of the county; in the parishes of Keig, Premnay, Monymusk, Oyne, Daviot, and Chapel of Garioch, near the banks of the Don, and of the Urie, which flows into the Don; in those of Udny, Ellon, and Tarves, near the banks of the Ythan; in those of Huntly, Drumblade, and Glenbucket, near the Doveran; and in those of Fraserburgh, Longside, and Peterhead, near the coast. It is quarried in Drumblade and Peterhead parishes. The granite is frequently found disintegrated, at least in so friable a state as to be easily dug into by the pickaxe and spade; yet large blocks of fine building-stone, capable of resisting the action of the weather, are frequently quarried in the midst of a mass of disintegrated rock.

Syenite is found in various parts, especially in the parishes of Peterhead and Lonmay near the coast; in Alford and Methlick parishes in th: interior; and in Strathdon and Glenbucket, near the head of the Don. Gneiss is found in the districts adjacent to the granite, but not in great quantity. The predominant rock in the county is mica slate. In the

parts adjacent to the granite it is quartzose and very compact, showing a tendency to pass into gneiss, or alternating with that rock. Serpentine and primitive limestone are found in a few places. Clay slate, grauwacké, and grauwacké slate are found in the parishes of Aberdour, Turriff, and King Edward, in the northern part of the county, adjoining Banflshire. Red sandstone (apparently the old formation) is found in the same three parishes, and in the adjacent parish of Monquitter. Magnesian limestone is said to be found in the parish of Tough. Trap rocks are of continual occurrence in the inland and hilly parts of the county; and veins or dykes of trap are observed in parishes near the east coast. (Boué, Essai Géologique sur l'Ecosse; New Statistical Account of Scotland.) Hydrography and Communications.-The principal rivers of the county are the Dee, the Don, the Ythan, the Ugie, and the Deveron or Dovern or Doveran, with their respective tributaries. We have enumerated them in the order of their outfal from south to north and west, from Kincardineshire to Banffshire.

The Dee rises in the south-western part of the county, in the mountains which there separate Aberdeenshire from Inverness-shire. It rises high up the side of the mountain Breriach, at an altitude of above 4000 feet, and flows for about 11 or 12 miles in a south-south-east direction to the junction of the Geonly or Geauly, a stream 10 miles long. From the junction of this stream its course is east by north for about 12 miles to Newton, below the castle of Braemar. In this part of its course it receives several mountain-streams, as the Lui and the Queich or Coich, each about 10 miles long, on the left bank, and the Ey and the Clunie or Cluanadh, about the same length, on the right. In the upper part of the Dee there are several falls, or as they are termed linns,' of which the principal, not from its height, but its turbulence, is the Liun of Dee; the river here forces its way by four successive falls or rapids through a passage of rock, so narrow in some places that some persons have been hardy enough to step across it. The falls of Coirmulzie and Garvalt, both below the Linn of Dee, are also much admired. From Newton the Dee flows about 7 miles north by east to the kirk of Crathie, and then turning to east by north, flows, with some slight variations, in that direction about 60 miles to its outfal at Aberdeen. Its whole course is above 90 miles. In the Gazetteer of Scotland,' published by Fullarton and Co. of Glasgow, and in Chambers's Gazetteer of Scotland,' its length is estimated at 96 or 97 miles. About 24 miles above its outfal it quits Aberdeenshire to enter Kincardineshire; but after flowing about ten miles through Kincardineshire, returns to the border of Aberdeenshire, and for the rest of its course separates the two counties. It receives the Gairden or Gairn, 18 miles long, on the left bank, about six miles below Crathie kirk; and the Muick, 12 miles long, on the right bank, about two miles lower down. In the upper part of the Muick are two small but picturesque lakes. Dhu-loch, the Black Lake,' is supposed to obtain its name from its being overshadowed by the lofty cliffs of Craig Dhu-loch, which rise from its southern border to a height of more than 1000 feet. A mountain rill falls into it on the

north side from a height of more than 200 feet. Loch Muick is about two miles long, from south-west to north-east, and half a mile broad. It receives a stream from Dhu-loch and others from the surrounding mountains; and its waters are remarkable for their coldness even in the midst of summer. There is a small island near its south-western end, where seagulls are always to be found. A little below the Muick, another stream falls into the Dee on the left bank: this stream is the outlet of two small lakes; Loch Connor, surrounded by birch-woods and studded with small islands, and Loch Dawan. The Dye, the largest feeder of the Dee, with the Aven its tributary, belong chiefly to Kincardineshire: the Dye joins the Dee on the right bank in Kincardineshire. Two small lakes, Loch Drum and Loch Skene, are connected with the Dee by streams which flow into it on the left bank, after it again touches the border of the county.

Its

The Dee is, from the declivity of its bed, which has a fall of 4000 feet in less than 80 miles, a rapid stream. average fall from Aboyne, 30 miles above its outfal, to AberIts inundations sweep deen, is about ten feet in a mile. away the good soil of the country through which it flows, and leave instead of it an unproductive sand. It is chiefly valuable for its salmon fishery, the yearly produce of which is estimated at 80007. The mouth forms the harbour of Aberdeen.

The Don rises just on the western border of the county, in the parish of Strathdon; its source is elevated about 1640 feet above the level of the sea: its course is very winding; first B2

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