THE FRESH- WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND 387 



the steepest slopes were observed off the north-eastern shore in the 

 vicinity of the Horseshoe craig, where a sounding in 236 feet was taken 

 about 100 feet from shore; another in 175 feet about 50 feet from 

 shore ; and, off what is known as the Cormorant rock, a sounding in 

 206 feet was taken about 50 feet from shore. This last-mentioned 

 sounding gives a gradient exceeding 4 in 1, or an angle of about 15 

 from the perpendicular. 



The steep shore-slope is further seen by the manner in which the 

 contour-lines of depth as a rule hug the shores, leaving a comparatively 

 very large area of the lake-floor along the central line of the loch 

 covered by very deep water. This is strikingly shown by the fact that 

 nearly one-half of the entire basin is covered by more than 500 feet of 

 water, and over one-third by more than 600 feet of water. In the 

 following table are given the approximate areas in acres between the 

 consecutive contour-lines drawn in at equal intervals of 100 feet, and 

 the percentages to the total area of the loch : 



to 100 feet 1892 acres 13'6 per cent. 



100 200 1340 9'6 



200 300 ,, 1610 11-6 



300,, 400 ,, 1121 8-0 



400,, 500 1329 9'5 



500 ,, 600 1627 11-7 



600,, 700 2461 17-7 



Over 700 2556 ,, 18 '3 



13,936 ,, 100-0 



This table brings out several interesting peculiarities when com- 

 pared with the similar tables published for the other large Scottish 

 lochs. The most remarkable point is that the two deeper zones are 

 larger than any of the other shallower zones, the deepest zone of all, 

 though the interval between the 700-feet contour and the maximum 

 depth is only half the usual interval between the contour-lines, being 

 the largest of all. Such a distribution of the depth-zones has not been 

 observed in any other loch, and is a reversal of the usual rule of the 

 shallowest zone being the largest one, though one or two exceptions to 

 this rule have been recorded, as, for instance, in Loch Treig, where the 

 zone between 200 and 300 feet is larger than either of the two shallower 

 zones, and in Loch Lochy, where the zone between 100 and 200 feet is 

 a little larger than the shore-zone. In the deepest of all Scottish lochs, 

 Loch Morar, the shore-zone is equal to 42 per cent, of the total area, 

 and the second zone between 100 and 200 feet is equal to 13 per cent., 

 while of the deeper zones not one exceeds 9 per cent, of the total area. 

 In Loch Lomond, again, the shore-zone is equal to 68 per cent, of the 

 entire area, and the second zone between 100 and 200 feet is equal to 

 16^ per cent., while the deeper zones are in each case less than 6 per 



