THE FRESH- WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND. 13 



on account of the large area draining into it an area 400 times greater 

 than that of the loch. The fishing includes both salmon and trout, but is 

 preserved. The loch trends in a west-north-west and east-south-east 

 direction, and is nearly a mile in length, with a maximum breadth of 

 a quarter of a mile. Its waters cover an area of about 88 acres, and 

 it drains directly an area of about 4J square miles, but since it receives the 

 overflow from Lochs Baddanloch, Allt an Fhearna, a' Chlair, nan Cuinne, 

 and Trnid air Sgithiche, its total drainage area exceeds 55f square miles. 

 The maximum depth of 8 feet was observed approximately in the centre of 

 the loch. The volume of water is estimated at 18 million cubic feet, and 

 the mean depth at over 4J feet. The loch was surveyed on October 14, 

 1502, but the elevation of the lake -surface could not be determined; when 

 levelled by the Ordnance Survey officers on July 19, 1869, the elevation 

 was found to be 3 7 6- 6 feet above the level of the sea. Loch na Moine is 

 quite simple in conformation, the water deepening gradually on all sides 

 towards the centre, with weeds growing along the south-western shore and 

 many stones in the narrow portion at the south-eastern (outflow) end. 

 The flat-bottomed character of the basin is shown by the fact that an area of 

 about 46 acres, or 53 per cent, of the total area of the loch, is covered by 

 more than 5 feet of water. 



Temperatures taken at 1 p.m. on the date of the survey gave identical 

 readings (48 0> Fahr.) at the surface and at a depth of 6 feet. 



In the eleven lochs in the Brora and Helmsdale basins, as shown 

 in the opposite table, 700 soundings were taken, and the aggregate area 

 of the water-surface is 6*69 square miles, so that the average number of 

 soundings per square -mile of surface is 104. 



The aggregate volume of water contained in the lochs is estimated at 

 2756 millions of cubic feet. The area drained by these lochs is about 

 203 square miles, or over thirty times the area of the lochs. 



