Even more important is the white fishing. Aberdeen is here pre-eminent, being perhaps the most important fishing centre in the world. The total catch for Scotland in 1909 was short of three million hundredweights, of which Aberdeen with its large fleet of trawlers and steam-liners accounted for 67 per cent. The most important of the so-called round fish is the haddock, of which over a million hundredweights are landed in Scotland, Aberdeen contributing the lion’s share, three-fourths of the whole. Next to the haddock comes the cod, of which nearly three hundred and forty thousand hundredweights were handled in the Aberdeen fish market. The next fish is ling, and then come whitings, saithe, torsk, conger-eels. The flat-fish are also important, plaice, witches, megrims, halibut, lemon soles and turbot. This last is the scarcest and most highly prized of all flat fish, and commands a price next to that given for salmon. Ling and halibut are still mostly caught by hook and line; the turbot and the lemon sole on the other hand are distinctively the product of the trawl net and were little known until trawling was begun. A certain small percentage of this great weight of fish is consumed locally, but the great bulk of it is packed in ice and dispatched by swift passenger trains to the southern markets. The Aberdeen fish market, extending for half a mile along the west and north sides of the Albert Basin (originally the bed of the Dee) is the property of the Town Corporation and is capable of dealing with large catches. As much as 760 tons of fish have been exposed on its concrete floor in a single day. In the early morning the place is one of the sights of the city, with the larger fish laid out in symmetrical rows on the pavement, and the smaller fish—haddocks, whiting and soles—in boxes arranged for the auction sale at 8 a.m. The majority of the fishing craft are still sailing vessels, but steam-drifters and motor-boats and steam-trawlers [Illustration: Fish Market, Aberdeen] are gradually driving the ordinary sail-boats from the trade, just as the trawl net is superseding the old-fashioned mode of fishing with set lines. Still about 86 per cent. of the number of boats employed is made up of sailing vessels, but the tonnage is relatively small. The quantity of fish caught by hook and line is only one-tenth of the whole. [Illustration: Fishwives, The Green, Aberdeen] [Illustration: North Harbour, Peterhead] [Illustration: Herring boats at Fraserburgh] The amount of capital invested in boats and fishing gear for all Scotland is estimated by the Fishery Board at over £5,000,000. Of this total, Aberdeenshire claims very nearly two millions. It is now the case that the value of fish discharged at the fish market of Aberdeen is as great as the yearly value of the agricultural land of the whole county—truly a marvellous revolution. [Illustration: Fishing Fleet going out, Aberdeen]