THE FRESH-WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND. 113 



LOCHS OF THE FLEET BASIN. 



THE only loch to be dealt with here is Loch Fleet, which forms the 

 source of the Little Water of Fleet, one of the tributaries of the Water of 

 Fleet flowing into Fleet bay, a branch of Wigtown bay. Loch Whinyeon 

 has been utilised to supply a mill at Gatehouse of Fleet, and its waters 

 have been diverted from the Dee basin, to which it originally belonged, 

 into the Fleet basin ; any overflow is into Tarn Water, a tributary of the 

 river Dee, and it will be treated of in that basin. 



Loch Fleet (see Plate XLVL). Loch Fleet lies about a mile to the 

 east of Loch Grennoch, over 2 miles to the west of Loch Skerrow, both 

 belonging to the Dee basin, and 8 miles north of Gatehouse of. Fleet. 

 Hills rise steeply on all sides of the loch, except to the south-east, where 

 the burn flows out. The loch trends from north-west to south-east, and 

 is over one-third of a mile in length, with a maximum breadth across the 

 upper end of a quarter of a mile, while its waters cover an area of about 

 43 acres. The basin is simple, the contours approximating to the outline 

 of the loch, and the maximum depth of 56 feet is centrally placed. The 

 volume of water is estimated at 41 million cubic feet, and the mean depth 

 at 22 feet. The loch was surveyed on July 24, 1903, when the elevation 

 was 1112'9 feet above the sea; the Ordnance Survey officers found the 

 elevation to be 1113*4 feet on September 1, 1894. The following 

 temperatures were taken in the deepest part of the loch : 



Surface 60-2 Fahr. 



10 feet 59-8 



25 55-6 



50 53-0 



The range of temperature was 7*2, the greatest fall, between 10 and 

 25 feet, being 4-2. 



