128 ANGLING & ART IN SCOTLAND 



twenty-six miles long and about three in width at 

 the widest part, furnishes to the angler all these 

 exciting attributes. The scenery is most beautiful 

 and varied ; the loch is richly studded with many 

 islands, and its shores are much indented, while the 

 form that it takes towards the east end is interesting 

 and peculiar. The peculiarity lies in the fact that 

 the river Awe, which drains the loch of its water, 

 runs out through the Pass of Brander at a point 

 within five miles of the head of the loch ; — for the 

 east end must be called the head, since it is there 

 that the Orchy (which is the principal feeder) empties 

 itself into the loch. Thus the main portion of the 

 lake, which stretches away towards the south-west 

 for over twenty miles, is left without the influx 

 of any considerable body of water. I believe that 

 there are traces near Ford, at the south-west end, 

 of an ancient river-bed, which seems to point to 

 the fact that in some far-off, bygone age, the 

 outlet was ^Aere, in the place where one would 

 naturally expect it to be ; and that, at a subse- 

 quent period, some great upheaval took place, which 

 formed that awe-inspiring fissure that lies to the 

 south of Ben Cruachan, known as the Pass of 

 Brander, and thus allowed the water to flow out 



