184 BATHYMETEICAL SURVEY OF 



Eaval, 1138 feet) gives an impressive bird's-eye view of the curious 

 conformation of country. In the western part of the island is an extensive 

 elevated tract, with few lochs, culminating in Marrival, 757 feet in height. 

 The lower ground towards the shore is, even in the western part of the 

 island, studded with little lochs. A great many of the lochs are tidal or 

 brackish, and the shore-line is further broken up by long ramifying arms 

 of the sea, which penetrate to the very heart of the island. When a 

 panoramic view is taken from one of the higher hills, it is obvious, from the 

 complicated shore-line, numerous islands, and absence of broad stretches of 

 water anywhere, that no great depth is to be expected. The lochs are in 

 fact shallow, with irregular bottoms, and bear no evidence of being rock- 

 basins, except in a few instances close to the bases of Lee and Eaval. The 

 considerable depth of 150 feet (having regard to the conformation of the 

 land) was observed in Loch Obisary. 



The conditions under which the survey had to be made were peculiar. 

 Though we had the permission of the proprietor, Sir A. J. Campbell- 

 Orde, Bart., to use the estate boats, we found that very few lochs had 

 boats on them. The hotel had boats on a few of the best fishing lochs. 

 The difficulty was overcome through the kindness of the hotel proprietor, 

 Mr. McFadyean, of Lochmaddy, who allowed us to move his boats from one 

 loch to another, and provided us with gillies to assist in the transfer. 

 Most of the lochs are so chained together that the boats had usually to be 

 taken over very narrow isthmuses, but in some instances they had to be 

 laboriously hauled over ridges 100 feet or more higher than the lochs, 

 and for distances of about half a mile. Owing to this mode of survey many 

 small lochs were sounded, which would not have been regarded as worth 

 the trouble, because they happened to lie on the chain through which the 

 boat had to be taken. For the same reason many salt or brackish lochs 

 were sounded, but in many of these cases we were unaware of their 

 character till too late. Every gradation as to saltness is found, from lochs 

 filled at every tide to those which only receive at long intervals an 

 exceptionally high tide, and which are fresh enough to be drinkable, and to 

 support the usual freshwater fauna. 



In measuring the height of the various lochs above sea-level we had 

 very few bench-marks to help us. There were no bench-marks except on 

 a few of the lochs near the road. The great number and close proximity 

 of the lochs rendered levelling over great distances comparatively easy. 

 Nearly all the lochs north of Loch Eport could be measured from one or 

 other of the ramifications of Loch Scadavay. From one bench-mark on the 

 Garnish road all the lochs to the south of Loch Eport, some of them 7 

 miles from the bench-mark, had to bo measured. 



The lochs of North Uist are on the whole of such a uniform character 



that it is considered needless to describe each loch in detail. Loch 



Scadavay, besides being by far the largest of the lochs, shows in peculiar 



erfection those features which are possessed in some degree by the great 



