324 BATHYMETRICAL SURVEY OF 



LOCHS OF THE HOPE BASIN. 



THE only loch to be dealt with here is the large Loch Hope, one 

 of the most important and the most northerly of the Sutherlandshire 

 lochs. There are several small hill lochs within the basin, which 

 could not be sounded at the time of the visit of the Lake Survey. 

 The headwaters of the basin take their rise on the flanks of Ben Hee, 

 of Meallan Liath, and of Meall Horn, whose summits attain heights 

 exceeding 2500 feet. The total area of the basin is 75 square miles, 

 of which nearly the whole drains into Loch Hope. 



Loch Hope (see Plate LXXVII.). Loch Hope lies close to the eastern 

 shore of Loch Eriboll on the north coast of Scotland, at an elevation 

 of only 12 \ feet above sea-level, so that a slight subsidence would 

 convert it into an arm of the sea and a branch of Loch Eriboll. The 

 natives declare that the sea never enters the loch, though ordinary 

 spring tides attain a point not more than half a mile from the foot 

 of the loch, and at the upper end three terraces are to be seen, and 

 traces perhaps of a fourth. Ben Hope rises very steeply to a height 

 of over 3000 feet to the south-east of the head of the loch, and the 

 ground further north and to the west, though not so high, is also 

 steep close to the shore; some parts of the shores are well wooded. 

 The loch is free from islands, but on the date of the survey a reputed 

 old castle was just showing a few inches above the water about a mile 

 from the foot of the loch. The trend of the loch is almost north and 

 south, and the total length exceeds 6 miles. The two ends of the loch 

 are narrow, but it broadens out in the central portion, where there is 

 a maximum breadth of three-quarters of a mile; the mean breadth 

 of the entire loch is over one-third of a mile. The waters of the loch 

 cover an area exceeding 1500 acres, or 2J square miles, and it drains 

 an area exceeding 73 square miles. The maximum depth of 187 feet 

 was observed about midway between the two ends of the loch. The 

 volume of water is estimated at 4032 millions of cubic feet, and the 

 mean depth at 61^ feet. The loch was surveyed on September 30, 1902, 

 when the elevation of the lake-surface was found, by levelling from 

 bench-mark, to be 12-55 feet above the sea; when levelled by the 

 officers of the Ordnance Survey on August 9, 1858, the elevation was 



