346 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



or channel of discharge for its aqueous accumulations, notwith- 

 standing that it possesses several sources of supply, one of which 

 is entitled, from its dimensions, to be termed a burn or rivulet. 

 The lie of the lake, and the direction taken by this feeder, 

 assisted by other indices, lead to the assignation of an upper and 

 lower end, the latter of which is located about a mile from the 

 Blackwater, where it passes Contin Inn. There Loch Achilty 

 (which, in the main, is of great depth, the converse in that re- 

 spect, it has been alleged, of its Tor or highest approximate hill) 

 becomes subjected to a change of condition, and shelves off in 

 the form of a shoal, sandy at bottom, and mixed up irregularly, 

 but, as far as scenery is concerned, attractively, with islets and 

 wooded promontories. Although covered with fine gritty particles, 

 the bed of the lake hereabouts is oozy, and of a spongy nature, 

 leading to the conclusion, which is borne out by the occurrence of 

 numerous springs below Contin Bridge, that the overcharge of 

 Loch Achilty makes for itself a subterraneous escape from this 

 quarter. Be that as it may, it is over the shallow sandy stretch 

 in question, fronting Craig Darroch, that the charr invariably 

 congregate for spawning purposes. In the principal feeder, which 

 communicates with a chain of smaller lakes, three in number, they 

 have never been observed ; nor has an instance, as far as I can 

 ascertain, ever occurred of their being taken in any of the super- 

 intending tarns ; the central one of which, Loch Nech Beannh, 

 is nearly a mile in circumference, and abounds with fine red- 

 fleshed trout, averaging three quarters of a pound in weight. 

 Why the Windermere charr should repudiate a sandy, and incline 

 to a rocky bottom for spawning purposes, while those of Loch 

 Achilty lean to the former, is a question for the naturalist to 

 take up. 



That the charr of Loch Achilty are not singular in their affec- 

 tion, at the breeding season, for the sandy shoals with which many 

 of our Scottish lochs are furnished, can be satisfactorily proved. 



