342 



THE BRIÏISU ISLES. 



Fig. 1G7. — Lock Taubekt axd the Cuinan 



Canal. 



Scale 1 : 500,000. 



away, tlie beds which they had occupied appeared as firths. The moraines, which 

 they had deposited beyond the old line of coast, only rendered more intricate 

 the labyrinth of straits. Owin<2^ to the enormous masses of ice wliich formerly 

 tilled tliem, tlie dei)th of several of these firths is very considerable, and far in 

 excess of any to be met with in the North Sea, to the west of the abyssal 

 "deep "of the Skager Rack. Loch Broom, between the counties of Ross and 

 Cromarty, has a depth of 723 feet at its entrance ; Sleat Sound, between Skye and 

 the mainland, is 820 feet deep ; and the Sound of Mull 720 feet. 



Nevertheless the agencies ceaselessly at 

 work must in the end succeed in filling 

 up even the firths of Western Scotland, as 

 of all temperate regions. As an instance 

 may be cited Holy Loch, opposite to the 

 mouth of the Clyde, the larger portion of 

 which has already been invaded by alluvium. 

 Elsewhere the sea lochs have been cut asun- 

 der through the agency of lateral torrents, 

 and their upper basin has gradually been 

 converted into a fresh-water lake, which 

 is slowly growing smaller. Not onl}^ are 

 the rivers busy in filling up these arms of 

 the sea, but the latter likewise throws the 

 waste of the land upon the shore. We find 

 that the depth of a loch is always greatest 

 on that side most exposed to violent winds, 

 whilst banks of sand are deposited in the 

 less agitated water.* These alluvial deposits, 

 whether of fluvial or marine origin, and 

 perhaps aided by a slow upheaval of the 

 whole land, have alread}^ converted several 

 islands along the coast into peninsulas. The 

 peninsula of Morven, for instance, on the 

 western side of Loch Linnhe, is, in reality, 

 an insular mass like its neighbour Mull. The 

 elongated peninsula of Kintyre, whose Gaelic name {Ccan tire) means Land's End, 

 or Finisterre, may also be looked upon as an island, for the neck which attaches 

 it to the mainland is no more than 60 feet in height. This neck of land is traversed 

 by the Crinan Canal, 9 miles in length, which is in reality a southern dependency 

 of the Caledonian Canal, and enables vessels drav/ing 10 feet of water to proceed 

 from the North Sea to the Clyde and Ireland without circumnavigating the 

 northern extremity of Scotland. A similar canal through Kintyre has been 

 projected farther south, where the two Lochs Tarbert approach within three- 

 quarters of a mile of each other. 



* Cleghorn, " Observations on the "Water of Wick," Journal of ths Royal Geographical Societ'./. 



2 Miles. 



