242 BATHYMETRICAL SURVEY OF 



numerous small islands and a few larger ones, the largest being Eilean 

 Gleann Fhionainn at the head of the loch, while on Eilean Fhiaiiain, 

 at the narrows towards the foot of the loch, are the remains of St. 

 Finnan's Church and a romantic burying-place of the Clanranald. At 

 the head of the loch stands Prince Charlie's monument, erected by the 

 late Colonel Macdonald, of Glenaladale, on the spot where that ill-fated 

 prince raised his standard. Salmon, grilse, sea-trout, and brown trout 

 abound in the loch, and yield fair sport, some of the salmon and trout 

 being very heavy. 



Considering its great length, Loch Shiel is very narrow, for at no 

 place does the loch attain a width of a mile, the maximum breadth 

 being about nine-tenths of a mile, and this occurs at the great bend in 

 the outline of the loch, opposite the entrance of the river Polloch. The 

 mean breadth of the loch is less than half a mile, being only 2| per cent, 

 of the length a smaller percentage than has been observed in any of 

 the larger lochs surveyed by the Lake Survey, the lochs most nearly 

 approaching it in this respect being Loch Shin with 3 per cent., and 

 Loch Ness with 4*3 per cent. The waters of Loch Shiel cover an area 

 of about 4840 acres, or over 7J square miles, and it drains directly an 

 area of over 72 J square miles, but, since it receives the outflow from 

 Loch Dilate, its total drainage area is about 85J square miles an area 

 over eleven times greater than that of the loch. Over 700 soundings 

 were taken, the maximum depth recorded being 420 feet, about 4 miles 

 from the head of the loch, between the heights of Beinn a' Chaoruinn 

 and Beinn Odhar Bheag to the north-west, and of Meall nan Creag 

 Leac to the south-east. The volume of water contained in the loch is 

 estimated at 27,986 million cubic feet, and the mean depth at 132| 

 feet, or nearly 32 per cent, of the maximum depth. Loch Shiel was 

 surveyed on July 2 to 9, 1902. The elevation of the lake-surface above 

 the sea was determined, by levelling from bench-mark, as being 11 '4 

 feet ; when levelled by the officers of the Ordnance Survey on November 

 6, 1897, the elevation was found to be 12 feet above sea-level. The 

 water may rise 4 to 5 feet higher than the level given above. 



The floor of Loch Shiel is on the whole rather irregular. The 

 50-feet contour-line encloses a continuous area extending from close to 

 the upper end to within 2 miles from the lower end at Acharacle, but 

 all the deeper contours are broken up so as to enclose two or more 

 isolated areas. The 50-feet contour follows approximately the general 

 outline of the loch, but it is in places of a sinuous character. At the 

 head of the loch it extends both to the north-west and south-east of 

 Eilean Ghleann Fhionainn. About 2 miles down there are sinuosities 

 in the contour on both sides of the loch, due to a tongue of deep water 

 projecting between the south-eastern shore and the island Sgeir Ghiubh- 

 sachain, and to a shoaling of the water off the north-western shore 

 from 33 to 15 feet. Further down, off the north-western shore, above 



