LOCH AWE 347 



Dochfour. The mean breadth is about half a mile, or 2*3 per cent, 

 of the length when the cross-arm to the Pass of Brand er is taken 

 into account. The narrowest part is barely a quarter of a mile, 

 while at the cross-arm a measurement of 2 miles may be obtained. 

 The level above the sea is usually stated as 118 feet. The loch was 

 surveyed and charted by naval officers in 1861, and again by Sir 

 John Murray's Bathy metrical Survey in May, 1903. During the 

 fourteen days of the latter survey " the level of the water varied to 

 the extent of about 2 feet, the highest level, as measured from bench- 

 mark, being 117*9 feet above the sea, and to this level all the sound- 

 ings . . . have been reduced." 



The bottom of the loch is peculiarly irregular. The deepest part 

 is 4 to 5 miles from the head of the loch where soundings of 306 feet 

 or 51 fathoms were found in four places. The 200 feet contour line 

 encloses five separate areas, and the 100 feet contour line three 

 separate areas. A deep channel runs from below Loch Awe Station 

 to the Pass of Brander. A deep channel also runs down the long 

 narrow main line of the loch. It is noticeable that between the 

 right angle point at New Inverawe and the point KE. of Inistrynich 

 a long shallow runs out, including Inishail and several lesser islands, 

 and that only a narrow channel of water deeper than 50 feet exists 

 near the Inistrynich shore. This almost suggests that the present 

 loch was at one time two ; that the line from the Orchy through the 

 Pass of Brander formed one, and the long narrow stretch from 

 Inishail to Ford another. In this case the more southern loch may 

 have fed into the more northern, as the line of the various hill burns 

 from the Cladich to Sonachan House on the east side, and the line 

 of the Avich on the west side, rather seem to indicate. Or it may 

 be that the outlet of the whole loch was originally at Ford into Loch 

 Craignish or Loch Crinan, and that a great dislocation of the earth's 

 surface along the south of Ben Cruachan, where the Pass of Brander 

 now is, opened a new outlet. I am not aware, however, that there 

 is any evidence of such a dislocation. It is more than likely, I 

 should think, that the glaciation of the district indicates the line 

 along which present day appearances came about, and I have no 

 doubt great glacial outflow went on at one time where Ford n.ow 

 stands. 



We need not, however, concern ourselves overmuch with these 

 speculations. The peculiarity of Loch Awe is that the greater part 

 of it, some twenty miles in length, is simply a blind end. The main 

 line of ascent for fish is from the Brander across a few miles of 



