Twenty-five millions of dollars worth of food are extracted annually through the fisheries in the deeper waters, which have been improved, first by the method of beam trawling, begun in 1882, and then by the steam line fishing in 1889. Trains loaded with nourishment from the great deep are despatched to London daily, and the fish market is a lively place. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF COTTAGE, NORTHEAST COAST] How full the North Sea is of these trawlers those know who have seen them and kept pace with the efforts of philanthropists to minister to the needs of the men on board the ships. In recent years we have learned, moreover, how soon, in time of war, these toilers of the deep are called upon to show their courage as well as their industry, and have thus realized the danger ever surrounding these modest heroes. The Russian Baltic fleet, in 1904, which was full of officers nervous about the existence of Admiral Togo’s torpedo boats,--supposed to be alert and active, seven thousand miles away from home,--fired into the Scotch trawlers and shed blood. How happy we were to see our British brethren keep cool! Instead of rushing immediately into war, like barbarians and savages, John Bull and the Muscovite came to an amicable understanding. In the world-war of 1914–16, the trawlers have not only caught fish, but in their new capacity, as mine-sweepers, have kept the North Sea measurably free from “the hell hounds of the deep,” besides themselves suffering awful devastation of life and property from hostile aeroplanes and submarines. An amusing glimpse into the life of the town in mediæval days, when its people lived in that other world of thought, which in northern Europe has utterly passed away, is given in the public records. For example, as showing the status of the crafts and guilds, to which the labor unions of Great Britain have succeeded, the Aberdeen Council register has the following:-- “It was found by the old lovable custom and rite of the burgh, that in the honor of God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, the craftsmen of the same, in their best array kept and adorned the Procession from Candlemas yearly.”