294 BATHYMETRICAL SURVEY OF 



ranks fifth of all Scottish lochs, being exceeded in this respect only 

 by Lochs Awe, Ness, Lomond, and Shiel. It is a fine sheet of water 

 situated amid beautiful scenery, with Ben More Assynt and Coniveall 

 rising to heights exceeding 3200 feet on the west, and Meall an Eoin 

 (3154 feet) on the north-east. It is a good trout loch, containing also 

 Salmo ferox, and the islands are much frequented by wildfowl. It 

 trends in a north-west and south-east direction, and the length measured 

 along the centre of the loch is about 17^ miles. The loch is on the 

 whole very narrow, the maximum breadth exceeding 1 mile at the 

 junction with the small arm leading to Loch a' Bhainbh, and also at 

 the position of the delta formation at the mouth of the river Fiodhaig. 

 Elsewhere the breadth is considerably less than a mile, and the upper 

 portion, to the north-west of the entrance of the river Fiodhaig, is all 

 less than half a mile in width. The mean breadth of the entire loch is 

 half a mile, or only 3 per cent, of the length a percentage smaller than 

 has been observed in any other large loch except Loch Shiel. * The 

 waters of Loch Shin cover an area of about 5570 acres, or nearly 8| 

 square miles, and the area of land draining into it is over 150 square 

 miles, but as it receives the outflow from Lochs Merkland, a' Ghriama, 

 and Fiodhaig, its total drainage area is over 190 square miles an area 

 22 times greater than that of the loch. Over 800 soundings were taken, 

 the maximum depth recorded being 162 feet, about 7 miles from the 

 foot of the loch, opposite the little Loch an Fhreiceadain on the north- 

 eastern shore. The volume of water contained in the loch is estimated at 

 12,380 millions of cubic feet, and the mean depth at 51 feet, or 31J per 

 cent, of the maximum depth. Loch Shin was surveyed on August 25 to 

 September 1, 1902, when the elevation of the lake-surface above the sea 

 was determined, by levelling from bench-mark, as being 270'85 feet; 

 when levelled by the officers of the Ordnance Survey on August 4, 1870, 

 the elevation was found to be 269-7 feet above sea-level. The farmer at 

 Overscaig stated that the water might fall 1 foot below, and rise 6 feet 

 above, the level at the time of the survey. 



The floor of Loch Shin is very irregular. None of the contour-lines 

 are continuous from end to end of the loch, and the lines themselves 

 are usually of a sinuous character. The 25-feet contour encloses two 

 areas, the 50-feet contour three areas, the 100-feet contour four areas, 

 and the 1 50-feet contour two areas. The lower 25-feet basin is nearly 

 10 miles in length, extending from close to the lower end of the loch 

 as far as the alluvial cone at the mouth of the river Fiodhaig. Here 

 for an interval of nearly half a mile the soundings indicate depths less 

 than 20 feet, except for an isolated sounding of 25 feet towards the 

 north-eastern shore. The upper 25-feet basin is nearly 6 miles in 

 length, approaching to within half a mile from the head of the loch. 



* See p. 242. 



