302 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



enters, used to be famous for sea- trout, as many as 70 having 

 been taken in a day. 



The loch is about 13| miles long, and the mean breadth 

 about nine- tenths of a mile ; the maximum breadth occurs 

 where the numerous islands exist, and is two miles across. 

 The water covers 11 square miles, and the drainage area is 

 fifteen times that extent, or 171 square miles. Many shallows 

 occur between the islands, and the bottom soundings show 

 three basins with a mean depth of 125 feet. The loch is 

 32 feet above sea-level. 



The line of the loch lies along that of a powerful fault in the 

 earth's surface, and Messrs. Peach and Home, of the Geological 

 Survey, in writing of it say that on this account they prefer 

 not to discuss its features in connection with the theory of the 

 glacial origin of lake-basins ; x but at the same time they add : 

 " Throughout the Loch Maree district, and especially in the 

 mountainous region embracing the Torridon sandstone and 

 Cambrian quartzite, there is evidence of intense glaciation. 

 During the climax of the glacial period even the highest moun- 

 tains in the Loch Maree district were overridden by the ice, 

 and farther along the top of Ben Slioch (3,217 feet), which, as 

 already indicated, is composed of Torridon sandstone, blocks 

 of thrust Archaean gneiss, Cambrian quartzite, and Moine 

 schists are met with, all of which have been derived from the 

 East. Similar evidence is obtained on Meall Ghuibhais (2,882 

 feet), on the south side of Loch Maree. Again, in the Coulin 

 Forest, on the lofty ridge running south from Sgura Dubh 

 (2,566 feet) to Beinn Liath Mhor (3,034 feet) striae have been 

 recorded pointing in a westerly direction at elevations ranging 

 from 1,750 to 2,000 feet." 



At the close of the glacial period the high mountains on 

 either side of Loch Maree seem to have been independent 

 centres of glaciers moving in a westerly direction, and uniting 

 in the main basin. A visit to Fionn Loch, parallel and to the 

 north of Loch Maree, the source of the Little Gruinard River, 

 and celebrated for its large brown trout, shows in this valley 

 also great glacial moraines. The bottom of the loch, at its 

 lower end at least, seems filled with immense boulders. A 

 brown trout of 18 Ib. was taken from this loch, and trout of 

 1 Scottish Geographical Magazine, xx., No, 12, p. 638, 



