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CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE AWE, AND RIVERS AND LAKES OF 

 ARGYLESHIRE. 



THE course of the AWE does not exceed four miles in 

 length. Its average breadth is forty -three yards, the 

 depth variable, from two or three feet up to twenty. 

 It is considered one of the finest salmon streams, for 

 rod-fishing, in Scotland, and is little influenced, in 

 comparison to most rivers, by heavy falls of rain, which 

 often, as in the case of Tweed, try the patience of 

 the angler. Sea-trout also ascend it in considerable 

 numbers, and at the pass of Brandir, the celebrated 

 salmo ferox descends to spawn, entering, for this pur- 

 pose, the streams immediately below the outlet of 

 Loch Awe. This river is the only one in Scotland 

 that escapes in a lateral direction from its parent 

 reservoir. 



The length of LOCH AWE has been variously esti- 

 mated. It certainly exceeds twenty-four, and is under 

 thirty miles ; its average breadth not being a mile, 

 although in some places it expands into a width of 

 three miles. Its depth, in several parts, is seventy 

 fathoms. It contains a great variety of fish salmon, 

 the ferox, common trout, pike, perch, charr, along with 

 two or three species of sea-trout. The pike are con- 

 sidered to be of recent importation, and their ravages 

 among the smaller and more delicate kinds of fish have 

 been, of late years, very considerable. The salmo ferox 



