THE ORCHY 349 



Loch Tulla is 2J miles in length, and averages half-a-mile in 

 breadth. It covers an area of over one square mile, and with its 

 island and wooded slopes round Forest House and Inveroran, forms 

 a beautiful point of focus in the wild glen. It has a mean depth of 

 33 feet, and a maximum depth of 84 feet. The level above the sea 

 is usually estimated as 555 feet. Forest House is on the north side, 

 and Inveroran Hotel at the south-west end. The whole country 

 round and the rights of salmon fishing, which are distributed between 

 lodges and hotels, belong to the Marquis of Breadalbane. The basin 

 of the loch " is of simple conformation, except that a small depression, 

 with depths exceeding 50 feet, occurs to the south-west of the island 

 Eilean Stalchairichd, separated from the larger deep portion of the 

 loch lying to the north-east of that island, where there is a depression 

 three-quarters of a mile in length and over 75 feet in breadth, the 

 maximum depth of 84 feet having been observed near the southern 

 end of this depression, and a quarter of a mile from the island." 1 



A stream of some little size, but interrupted by falls, enters the 

 loch at the southern end about midway between the lodge and the 

 hotel. It drains the hills to the westward, and has its origin in a 

 small loch called Loch Dochard, and little tarns and streams beyond, 

 which rise near the divide to Glen Etive. 



Loch Tulla used to be very famous for its trout, some great stories 

 being on record of what could be done on a good day by wading 

 round the margins. It would appear that trout of 1 lb., 2 lb., and 

 3 lb. were common, and that trout up to 9 lb. have been taken. 

 Curiously enough they were not, apparently, described asferox. 



Some sixty years ago, however, about the year 1848, the late 

 Lord Breadalbane was advised by some dangerous person to intro- 

 duce pike. He did so, and Loch Tulla and the neighbouring 

 streams have not been quite the same since. The pike increased 

 wonderfully. They were quite a success in this respect. The 

 increase was, however, at the expense of the trout and salmon -fry. 

 Nowadays a systematic war is waged against them when they enter 

 the weedy shallows to spawn in the spring. To increase the stock 

 of trout, the present Marquis has established a small hatchery. 



No mention of the pike is made in the First Statistical Account of 

 this neighbourhood, written in the last decade of the eighteenth 

 century. Salmon, char, trout, and eels are alone mentioned. It 

 has been repeatedly stated that the pike of Loch Awe are sprung 



i James Chumley, " The Survey of British Lakes" ; Scottish Geographical Magazine, 

 xviii. No. 8, p. 422. 



