Contribution to Vertebrate Fauna of West Ross-shire. 3'79 
of which exceed 3000 feet, and it is only in the north-west, 
round the Gairloch, and on the North Point, that any con- 
siderable extent of ground below 500 feet in elevation is to 
‘be found. The greater part of West Ross is, in fact, a high 
mountain plateau, carved by the forces of denudation into a 
hundred forms of ridge and hollow, deep corrie and shattered 
summit-peak, and trenched by narrow valleys in which flow 
the principal streams. These valleys are continued below 
sea-level as narrow sea-lochs, which penetrate far up among 
the hills; while the still further incursion of the sea at an 
earlier period is indicated by the fragments of raised beaches, 
seen as flat terraces of shingle, that occur here and there at 
the mouths of the glens, and along the sides of the sea-lochs. 
From the shores of most of these lochs the hills rise steeply 
almost from the water’s edge, as at the head of Loch 
Torridon, where from the beach the eye ranges directly 
upwards to the summit of Leagach, 3400 feet overhead. 
The eastern boundary of West Ross follows the water- 
shed of Scotland, running with a sinuous course, but general 
southerly trend, from Glen Achall, north of Loch Broom, to 
Beinn Loyne at the head of Glen Clunie, where it meets the 
northern limit of Inverness-shire, which extends W.N.W. to 
the coast at Glenelg. Nowhere is the watershed at a greater 
distance than 15 miles from the nearest point of the 
western sea-board. The rivers are, consequently, insignificant 
in length, and—with the exception of the Ewe, which drains 
the great reservoir of Loch Maree—of little volume, save . 
after heavy rains, when they come down with great rapidity 
and often devastating effect. Of these the principal are the 
Broom; the Strathbeg in Dundonnell; the Big and Little 
Gruinards, running respectively into Little Loch Broom and 
Gruinard Bay; the Ewe with its headwaters the Garbh and 
Breachaig, running into and draining Loch Maree; the 
Kerry at Gairloch; the Torridon and Balgy flowing into 
Loch Torridon; the Carron; and the Ling, Elchaig, and 
Shiel flowing into Lochalsh. 
In all these rivers salmon and sea-trout are found at some 
time during the year, and there are few of the larger burns 
up which sea-trout, and now and then a grilse or two, do not 
