THE FRESH-WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND. 



197 



Loch Morar (see Plate XLIIL). This is a large and beautiful loch, 

 lying amid wild and magnificent scenery on the west coast of Inverness- 

 shire, in the south-west portion of that county, immediately to the 

 south of Loch Nevis, which is a sea-loch running inland for 12 miles 

 from the Sound of Sleat. The west end of Loch Morar is about 3 

 miles from Arisaig, and 2J miles from Mallaig. Morar station, on 

 the Mallaig branch of the West Highland Railway, is within a few 

 hundred yards of the west end. 



The loch is a little over 11J miles in length, and the maximum 

 breadth is over H miles near the west end; the mean breadth is 



FIG. 33. LOCH MOEAR, LOOKING EAST FKOM THE WEST END. 



(Photograph by Mr. T. N. Johnston, M.B., C.M., F.R.S.E.) 



nearly T %- of a mile, or about 7^ per cent, of the length. The area 

 covered by the lake is 6596 acres, or nearly 10J square miles. 



There are several islands, more or less richly covered with vegetation, 

 at the west end of the loch (see Fig. 33), and parts of the surrounding 

 land, especially on the north side, are fairly well wooded, all of which 

 greatly adds to the beauty and picturesqueness of the scenery at this 

 part, but as one proceeds eastwards towards the head of the loch the 

 scenery becomes wilder, the vegetation more scanty, and the mountains 

 on both sides of the loch rise higher and more steeply. At many 

 places on the north shore they rise precipitously from the water's edge, 

 and around the head of the loch they reach a height of fully 3000 feet. 



