114 On the Geology of Loch Leuen. 



these districts above referred to ; yet there was a circumstance 

 connected with the concatenated events that have since been 

 experienced, that I think will go far to prove the previous work- 

 ings of these hidden piles, nnd which, t-hough partial in effect, was 

 marked with characteristic evidence of its being a member of the 

 same family. 



In summer 1815, there was a discharge (of gas in all proba- 

 bility) from the depths of the lake, in such quantity, and so very 

 deleterious in its effect, that its impregnation of the waters de- 

 stroyed the fish in such numbers as gave rise to a belief that the 

 waters of the lake had been poisoned. Incredible numbers of its 

 finny inhabitants were destroyed and thrown ashore, chiefly the 

 largest of their kinds ; such as frequent the deepest waters. 

 Many a monarch of the flood that had reigned perhaps for ages, 

 the terror of the smaller fry, now lay along the beach a prey to 

 the raven and carrion crow ; and so strongly and implicitly was 

 the belief of their having died by poison riveted in the minds of 

 the surrounding population, that no one, however needy, would 

 venture to eat them, notwithstanding the finest fish of their 

 species, pike, trout, perch, and eels, might have been col- 

 lected in cart loads. Pike, upwards of twenty pounds avordupoise, 

 and trouts, fijc. of the largest size, lay in promiscuous confusion 

 along the margin of the lake, all of them (except the eel) pre- 

 senting one uniform characteristic mark of destruction, the eyes 

 of every species of the scaly tribe having been driven or started 

 with apparent force from their sockets. This undeviating uni- 

 formity in every species except the eel, shows that they had all 

 died from one cause, and by a similar effect on the vital orgatis. 

 The exception of the eel will not at all surprise those acquainted 

 with the anatomical construction of this animal, whose beautifal 

 radiant eye is, as it were, hermetically inclosed within its recese, 

 and protected from all external injury by the same skin that en- 

 folds the body of the fish passing over the eye. I'he particular 

 part that covers the visual organ is somewhat thinner and per- 

 fectly transparent 5 so that, however the vitals of the eel may have 

 been affected, the eye, securely bound within its recess, would not 

 leave its natural position, without bursting this skin, however si- 

 milar its death mii^ht have been in other respects. 



At this time the waters of the lake assumed a dark colour re- 

 sembl ng an inftision of peat soil, and partially retained this dusky 

 hue till August 18 1 G, when the quantity of aluminous soil, thrown 

 from the botton of the lake by the shock vvhich so much alarmed 

 the town and neighbourhood of Inverness, had the effect of clari- 

 fying the waters, and restoring them to their accustomed purity. 

 With the particulars of this your readers are already acquainted. 



What 1 have just narrated, forms iho ground on which I founded 



my 



