THE EWE 293 



rather extensive croy building in order to improve the holding 

 capacity of the existing pools and streams. I see no prospect of 

 dealing in any practicable manner with the reduction of netting, for 

 netting cannot be said to be severe, or to be greater than in the 

 best days of the river. The object must, I think, be to improve 

 the rests and lies of the river itself. 



This can be done by a careful study of the water and the 

 introduction at properly chosen places of properly adjusted croys or 

 jetties which will direct the water-flow as may be desired and, in 

 this instance, materially aid in holding up the volume of the 

 streams without creating too heavily concentrated rushes of water 

 in the lower section of the river. 



It is an operation which requires great judgment, but I believe 

 would result in re-making this splendid river, if properly carried 

 out. 



LOCH MABEE. 



This magnificent loch is also a disappointment so far as salmon are 

 concerned. Very very seldom is a salmon encountered, although 

 numbers of sea-trout are got, and the water is much fished by visitors 

 at Loch Maree and Kinlochewe. From the former 12 loch beats are 

 fished by 12 boats, and four or five boats fish from Kinlochewe. The 

 narrow channel already referred to as occurring at the outlet, in the 

 bay where the Inveran river enters, used to be famous for sea-trout, 

 as many as 70 having been taken in a day. 



The loch is about 13 J miles long, and the mean breadth about 

 nine- tenths of a mile; the maximum breadth occurs where the 

 numerous islands exist, and is two miles across. The water covers 

 11 square miles, and the drainage area is 15 times that extent, or 

 171 square miles. Many shallows occur between the islands, and 

 the bottom soundings show three basins with a mean depth of 125 

 feet. The loch is 32 feet above sea-level. 



The line of the loch lies along that of a powerful fault in the 

 earth's surface, and Messrs. Peach and Home, of the Geological 

 Survey, in writing of it say that on this account they prefer not to 

 discuss its features in connection with the theory of the glacial 

 origin of lake-basins j 1 but at the same time they add : " Throughout 

 the Loch Maree district, and especially in the mountainous region 

 embracing the Torridon sandstone and Cambrian quartzite, there is 

 evidence of intense glaciation. During the climax of the glacial 



1 Scottish Geographical Magazine, xx., No. 12, p. 638. 



