20 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



more to say about this phenomenon later in this series of 

 papers, as a continuation of this history of the Inver River. 

 And later I shall have something to say of habits- as 

 observed by me of River Inver fish, " fossacks " (or tidal 

 trout) and sea trout. 



Up to this point I have kept simply to a history of the 

 river as known to me. I visited Inchnadamph again in June 

 1901, and learned upon the spot information which verified 

 what has been said above. Before the two or three days 

 of rain which we had within the drainage area of the Inver, 

 which took place upon the I ith, I 2th, and i 3th of the month, 

 I had on several occasions taken the temperature of the 

 Loch near the surface. I found it was, as taken by me, 

 49^- Fah., and it was much colder than the air. Both my 

 boatmen whom I employed expressed themselves as never 

 remembering the water of Assynt so cold at this time of the 

 year as thus in June 1901. At this time the loch was at 

 perhaps the lowest level since 1887 and 1888. These tem- 

 perature readings were taken along the side of the loch next 

 to the road, which is the water most frequented by fresh- 

 run salmon ; and as that is superintended along the whole 

 area of shore by the limestone of Achumore, and above the 

 loch by limestone cliffs of Stronchrubie, of the limestone 

 and granite of Trailigill, and of the limestone of Altnaoul, 

 the deep-seated cause of these low temperatures does not 

 appear hard to understand. 



And to emphasise this I found also that the waters of 

 Loch Awe of Assynt, already spoken of, the May-fly true 

 green and gray drakes, but seemingly smaller than normal 

 appeared eight days earlier than usual. The first " show 

 up" was upon 28th May (only a few), and then in thousands 

 (sic} afterwards. The loch being muddy, the trout were not 

 rising freely at them. At this time, however, the Loch Awe 

 trout were in excellent condition, as they are usually the first 

 to get into form of all the loch trout of Assynt. 



Loch Assynt is a deep and extensive loch, fed principally 

 by limestone water coming from very deep sources ; but Loch 

 Awe is a shallow loch of small size, fed mostly from surface 

 water off the gneiss of Canisp until the effluent river Loanan 

 is joined below by the Cold Spring burn from the limestone 



