372 INFLUENCES OF CULTIVATION 



In Murray, is ane loch namit Spynee quhair gret plente is of swannis. The 

 cause quhy the swannis multiplyis so fast in this loch is throw ane herbe 

 namit Olour, quhilk burgeonis with gret fertilitie in the said loch, and the 

 seed of it is richt nurisand and delicius to swannis. This herbe is sa brudy 

 that quhair it is anis sawin or plantit it can nevir be destroyit; as may be 

 provin be experience: for thought this loch be V milis lang, and wes sum 

 tyme as the memorie of man yet beris, full of salmond and uthir gret fische, 

 yit, fra this herbe began to burgeon in it, the waiter is growin sa schauld, 

 than ane man may waid throw the maist partis thairof ; and therefore, all 

 manir of gret fische is quit evanist out of it. [Bellenden's Translation.] 



And now the Swans and cygnets, which, as other accounts 

 tell us, were so numerous as often to darken the air in their 

 flight, have disappeared with the draining of the loch. 



Even where swamps were not completely drained the 

 reduction in area which took place in many lochs must have 

 greatly diminished the numbers of wild fowl. In 1810 the 

 Loch of Forfar, a fine body of water, was so drained that its 

 circumference was reduced from not less than four English 

 miles to two, and its depth decreased by ten feet. The water 

 in Loch Leven was lowered in 1830 by nine feet and the 

 area contracted from 4312 to 3545 acres. In 1629, Lowther 

 on his journey noted that here 



there [be] great store of almost [i.e. most all] kinds of wild fowl, of wild 

 geese, there being continually seen 3000 or 4000, and swans many, the swans 

 will not suffer any foreign swan to be with them, in stormy weather the old 

 swans will carry the young ones on the wings off the water. ...They dry them 

 in their chimneys like red herrings 1 . 



Though Loch Leven is still one of the most richly stocked 

 lochs in civilized Scotland the numbers of wild animals can- 

 not compare with those of former days. Not only have wild 

 fowl suffered, but the greater competition for food induced 

 by the smaller area of the feeding-ground has resulted in the 

 disappearance of that interesting fish, the red-bellied Char, 

 the last example of which was caught a few years before 

 1844, whereas in Lowther's time it was common. 



Two sets of animals have been reduced in numbers or 

 have disappeared with the draining of the lakes and marshes. 

 The permanent inhabitants of these areas, their fishes, frogs, 

 newts and lesser denizens have gone, and following on the 

 disappearance of these true denizens has come that of the 



1 It is possible that the last sentence refers to the fishes of the Loch, 

 though Lowther's grammatical arrangement gives no ground for that belief. 



