MARCH, 



being within its bounds, while it stretches up to Loch 

 Awe. 



Any wind in such a loch as Etive must be a dangerous 

 one at times, and it is well remarked that no boat should 

 sail it with any other sail than a plaid on a stick. Those 

 accustomed with ordinary squalls on ordinary waters 

 may laugh at this, but to see it as we did on the i4th 

 would have verified the saying. Over Durnish came the 

 wind with a savage rush, and dropped into the loch 

 opposite Aird's Bay House where the genial Dr. 

 Norman Macleod used to bathe his weary eyes in Etive 

 as straight as if it had been a falling block of granite. 

 The squalls struck the waters absolutely perpendicularly 

 at times, and spread out on every side like the ripples 

 from a stone tossed into the water. Those acquainted 

 with the loch are frequently only advised of the coming 

 burster through the sough of the wind among the trees 

 on the hillsides. Under these circumstances, oars were 

 naturally our most usual means of progression ; and the 

 marvellous variety of diseases, from lumbago to rheu- 

 matism and spinal disorder, were the equally natural 

 result of huge bags of mud dragged unwillingly from the 

 slimy depths of Etive. 



This noble stretch of water receives so much fresh 

 water into it, and has to be filled with its quota of salt 

 water through such a narrow entrance, that its specific 

 gravity, as a rule, is much less than that of Creran ; 

 while the unsteady temperature caused by the great 

 supply of cold fresh water occasionally, followed by 

 seasons of comparative absence of such supply as at 

 present causes it to support a somewhat different fauna 

 from Loch Creran, which has otherwise many points in 

 common. While the oyster flourishes naturally through- 



