270 BATHYMETRICAL SURVEY OF 



LOCHS OF THE ETIVE BASIN. 



WITHIN the area draining into Loch Etive (see Index Map, Fig. 28) the 

 staff of the Lake Survey sounded some twenty lochs, including Loch Awe, 

 one of the most important of the Scottish fresh-water lochs, which was 

 surveyed by naval officers in 1861, as already mentioned when speaking 

 of Loch Lomond, in the Clyde basin, the only other loch in Scotland 

 surveyed by the Government. Loch Awe has the distinction of being the 

 longest lake in Scotland, and in comparison with it the other lochs in the 

 basin are dwarfed into insignificance ; still, Lochs Avich and Tulla are 

 good- sized basins, exceeding each a square mile in superficial area, but 

 the remaining lochs are mostly very small. Dubh Lochan, near Kings- 

 house, drains by the river Etive into the head of Loch Etive ; Loch 

 Dochard drains into Loch Tulla, and thence by the river Orchy into Loch 

 Awe ; Lochan na Bi, near Tyndrum, drains by the river Lochy, which 

 joins the river Orchy just before entering Loch Awe at Dalmally ; Loch 

 Ederline, near the head of Loch Awe, Loch Avich, to the west of the 

 central part of Loch Awe, Lochs an Leoid, an Droighinn, and na Gealaich, 

 to the west of the lower part of Loch Awe, and the four little hill lochs 

 near Portsonachan (Lochs Rainbow, Choire na Cloich, Dhu, and Allt na 

 Mult) all drain into Loch Awe by longer or shorter streams ; Loch Sior 

 drains into Loch Nant, and thence by the river Nant into Loch Etive at 

 Taynuilt; the Black Lochs drain by the Lusragan burn into Loch Etive 

 at Connel ferry, while Lochans nan Rath and na Beithe lie on the north 

 side of Loch Etive, opposite Connel ferry. The scenery of the district 

 is very fine, and the fishing in most of the lochs good. Loch Awe 

 contains salmon and Salmo ferox, as well as trout. 



Loch Awe (see Plates CXXII. and CXXITI.). Loch Awe being so 

 well known, and the depth conditions having been known since the pub- 

 lication of the Admiralty chart in 1863, no lengthy description is called 

 for here. It is extremely elongate, but sinuous, in outline, and is peculiar 

 in that a long narrow arm branches off at right angles to the main axis, 

 and leads through the Pass of Brander to the outflow (see Fig. 36). As 

 already indicated, Loch Awe exceeds in length all other Scottish fresh-water 

 lochs, for measured along the central axis from the head of the loch to the 

 exit of the river Awe, in the Pass of Brander, it is almost 25 J miles in length. 

 Even excluding the narrow arm, and measuring from the head of the loch 



