76 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



Loch Rannoch is a glacial rock basin, which was at one time 

 perhaps rather longer than now. It scarcely merits special 

 notice in connection with salmon fisheries, for I do not antici- 

 pate that even were salmon allowed freely to enter Loch 

 Tummel and to ascend to Loch Rannoch, they would ever be of 

 great sporting value. The loch is 9| miles in length, and 668 

 feet above sea-level. Close to its upper end it receives the 

 water from Loch Ericht. The lower end of the original rock 

 basin is now filled up for a distance of about 3 miles with 

 alluvial debris washed down from the high land on either side. 

 The end of the basin is believed by geologists to be now seen 

 in the rocky barrier which constitutes the Dunalastair Falls, 

 reference to which will be made later. 



Some fine fishing pools occur above the falls, where the river 

 winds about in a narrow and thickly-wooded gorge immedi- 

 ately below Dunalastair House. Below the falls the country 

 gradually opens out, and the course of the river flattens till 

 Loch Tummel is reached, where the alluvium is spread out 

 widely, and must be steadily reducing the loch at this end. A 

 short distance before Loch Tummel is reached, an old w r eir 

 connected with a small mill at Dalcroy is thrown across the 

 river. The mill is very little used, and the weir of river stones 

 was not formerly kept in very good repair, so that a great 

 quantity of water found its way through the interstices of the 

 downstream face, and by this means lost all concentration in 

 flow, for no gap of any kind exists. These defects have recently 

 been made good. 



Loch Tummel is a typical rock basin, is 2| miles long and 

 about half a mile broad. It is a loch of great beauty and 

 famed for its trout. The bays and headlines are often richly 

 wooded, and here and there cultivated slopes add a pleasant 

 variety of colour and outline. Schiehallion (3,547 feet) ever 

 rises dominant in the high land to the left as one looks up the 

 loch, while the hills behind Dunalastair are of a finely-chiselled 

 outline and fill in the picture with great balance and charm. 

 From the highest point on the road which skirts the north side 

 of the loch the view is peculiarly fine, and since 1866, when 

 Queen Victoria visited it and wrote of its beauty, has been 

 styled " The Queen's View." 



Geologists identify the end of the rock basin of the loch at 



