THE EARN 95 



The river rises from Loch Earn, a sheet of water fed by 

 several comparatively small streams, none of which, owing to 

 their steepness, can be regarded as salmon head waters except 

 for spawning purposes. It flows down the wide Strath Earn 

 past Comrie and Crieff to Dupplin and the tidal reaches already 

 referred to, a distance, including the many windings, of 46 

 miles. 



Loch Earn is nearly 6| miles in length and over half a mile 

 in mean breadth. It is a beautiful loch as one looks from the 

 St. Fillans end to Ben Vorlich on the left, or as one looks across 

 it and up Glen Ogle at Lochearnhead. The style of scenery 

 is that of a large loch. One always seems to understand that 

 Loch Earn must be quite 12 miles long. There is nothing 

 trivial or detailed in the landscape. The whole is composed 

 in broad masses, with simplicity and not a little sweetness, 

 and yet with grandeur. We have here a large loch in 

 miniature. 



In formation it is a simple basin, having its greatest depth 

 approximately in the centre and shallowing gradually in all 

 directions. The greatest sounding found in Sir John Murray's 

 survey was 287 feet. Previous to this, I believe, its depth was 

 believed to be 600 feet " in many places." The floor of the 

 loch is below 250 feet in depth for a distance of nearly 2 

 miles, and the 200 area is 4| miles long. 



The very regular nature of the basin is shown by the fact 

 that " of the entire lake-floor 39 per cent, is covered by less 

 than 100 feet of water, 31 per cent, is covered by water with 

 depths between 100 and 200 feet, and 30 per cent, by water 

 exceeding 200 feet in depth." * It cannot be said to be much 

 of a loch for salmon, although a fish is occasionally taken. I 

 have seen newspaper accounts of salmon being taken quite 

 early in the season, but I have a suspicion that the fish must 

 have been very lean, and with a good many maggots in their 

 gills. 



There is no doubt that a number of fish enter the loch, but 

 they do not do so as a rule till late in the season, when salmon 

 loch-fishing is useless. I recollect on one occasion I essayed 

 from Lochearnhead to catch something on a good-sized phantom 



1 "The Survey of British Lakes," Scottish Geographical Magazine, 

 vol. xviii., No. 8, p. 416. 



