470 
NATURE 
[ Marcu 14, 1907 
SURVEY OF SCOTTISH LAKES. 
DURING the past three or four years the bathymetrical 
survey of 554 of the fresh-water lochs of Scotland 
has been completed under the direction of Sir John Murray 
and Mr. Laurence Pullar. This practically means that | 
all the Scottish fresh-water lochs have now been surveyed, 
except some small ones on which no boats could be found. | 
A large staff has been employed during the course of the 
work—about forty voluntary and paid assistants, in addi- | 
tion to a great many boatmen and other workmen. Up 
to the present time, the charts of 180 lochs, with descrip- | 
tions, have been published in the Geographical Journal, | 
and arrangements have now been made for the publication 
in the same journal during the present year of the descrip- | 
tions and charts of the thirty-three lochs in the Ness | 
basin. This will complete the publication of the observ- | 
ations made in the more important lochs. The results 
obtained in the case of the remaining 340 lochs will be 
published, as a special volume, by the Royal Geographical | 
Society in about eighteen months from this date, the | 
charts being at present in the course of printing by Mr. 
J. G. Bartholomew. | 
Besides the purely bathymetrical aspect of the survey, 
| each cover an area of about six square miles. 
| largest lochs (Arkaig and Lochy) drain into the River 
| and four exceed five miles in length, while Loch Lochy is 
nearly ten miles, and Loch Arkaig twelve miles, in 
length; five of the lochs exceed 100 feet in depth, and 
three exceed 300 feet in depth, while Loch Lochy exceeds 
500 feet in depth; five of the lochs cover a superficial area 
in each case exceeding a square mile, and four exceeding 
| two square miles, while Loch Arkaig and Loch Lochy 
The two 
Lochy, while the remaining lochs within the basin 
(Pattack, East and West na h-Earba, Laggan, Ossian, 
Ghuilbinn, Treig, and an Dubh Lochan) drain into the 
River Spean, which joins the River Lochy shortly after 
| its exit from Loch Lochy; the little Loch nan Gabhar 
and Lochan Lunn da-Bhra drain by independent streams 
into Loch Linnhe. In these twelve lochs, which cover an 
area of about twenty square miles, nearly 2600 soundings 
were taken, or an average of 214 soundings per loch, and 
129 soundings per square mile of surface; the aggregate 
volume of water contained in the lochs is about 85,855 
| millions of cubic feet, or more than one-half of a cubic 
mile, and the area draining into them is more than 27 
square miles, or fourteen times the area of the lochs. 
Loch Lochy (see Fig. 2), the southernmost of the chain 
of lochs occupying the Great 
Glen, utilised in forming the 
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Fic. 1.—Index Map of the Lochy District. 
papers have been published by Prof. Chrystal on seiches, | 
by Mr. E. M. Wedderburn on the temperature of Loch | 
Ness, by Mr. E. R. Watson on ionisation of air in vessels 
immersed in deep water, by Dr. Wesenberg-Lund on =| 
comparative study of Scottish and Danish lakes, by Prof. | 
Bachmann on phytoplankton of Scottish and Swiss lakes, | 
by Mr. G. West on aquatic plants, by Mr. James Murray 
on fresh-water animals, by Drs. Peach and Horne on 
the geological surroundings of the lochs, and other papers.* | 
The last published paper* treats of the lochs within 
the basin of the Lochy, the relative positions of which 
are shown in the little index map of the district (Fig. 1). 
The total area of the basin exceeds 400 square miles, the 
diameter from east to west exceeding forty miles, and 
from north to south exceeding twenty miles. Of the ten 
lochs within the basin, five exceed three miles in length | 
1 See Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xli. pp. 367, 599, 677, and 823; vol. 
xlv., p. 261; Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxv., pp. 7, 401, 593, 600, 637, 967 ; 
Geogr. Journ., vol. Xxiv., p. 420- 
2 “*Bathymetrical Survey of the Fresh-water Lochs of Scotland.” Under 
the direction of Sir John Murray, K.C.B., F.R.S., and Laurence Pullar. 
Part xii., The Lochs of the Lochy Basin (Geogr. Journ, vol. xxviii., pp. 
592-615 ; with 8 plates of maps). 
NO. 1950, VOL. 75] 
| three basins. 
| region 
Caledonian Canal, is a straight 
loch, having the form of a 
narrow triangle with the apex at 
the north-east end, whence it 
widens gradually southward to 
Bunarkaig, where the maximum 
breadth of a mile and a quarter 
is found, the average breadth of 
the whole loch being three-fifths 
of a mile. The superficial area 
is nearly 3800 acres, and the 
volume of water about 37,726 
millions of cubic feet, the maxi- 
mum depth being 531 feet and 
the mean depth 229 feet. All 
the contour lines are continuous, 
the 1oo-feet contour enclosing an 
area little less than the total 
length of the loch, while the 
areas enclosed by the 200-feet. 
300-feet, and 4oo-feet contours are 
respectively 63, 43, and 3 miles 
in length. The 500-feet contour 
encloses a very small area, one- 
third by one-eighth of a mile, 
just about the middle of the 
loch. 
Loch Arkaig (see Fig. 3), a 
long, narrow, curved loch, trend- 
ing nearly east and west, lying 
about a mile to the west of 
Loch Lochy, is of somewhat 
irregular outline, broadest in the 
middle parts, where the loch is nearly a mile wide, and 
tapering towards each end, the mean breadth being half 
a mile. The superficial area is about 4ooo acres, and the 
| volume of water about 26,573 millions of cubic feet, the 
maximum depth being 359 feet and the mean depth 153 
feet. The basin is nearly simple, the slight irregularities 
being doubtless correlated with the curving outline. The 
100-feet contour is continuous, but the 200-feet contour 
is broken into two basins, and the 300-feet contour into 
The largest 300-feet area, just about the 
middle of the loch, is two miles in length, and includes the 
maximum depth of 359 feet.* 
Loch Treig occupies a deep, narrow valley trending 
north and south among very high mountains in the 
of Lochaber, the West Highland Railway running 
along the east side. It is more than five miles in 
length, with a maximum breadth of three-quarters of a 
1 It is odd that surveys were apparently made of Lochs Arkaig, Lochy, 
and Ness about eighteen years ago by a German military officer named 
Sandler, who lived for some months in the district. The results of these 
surveys have never been published, but a copy of that of Loch Arkaig was 
obtained from Mr. Honeyman, factor to Cameron ot Lochiel, which corre- 
sponded very closely with the results of the Lake Survey. 
