OF LOCHABER 49 



its upper extremity, from whence the surface of the lake 

 extended all the way to the mossy ground within a few yards 

 of Loch Spey, where we have seen that Shelf 2d is identified 

 with the flat, in such a manner, as in my opinion to warrant 

 the conclusion, that the primary Loch Roy discharged its 

 own waters, and those it received from the tributary Loch 

 Gluoy, down through the hollow of the present course of the 

 river Spey, by Garvamore, to the German or Eastern Sea. 

 In this state of matters, the boundary rock between upper and 

 lower Glen Roy, some portions of the top of which seem to 

 rise a little above the level of Shelf 2d, and around which 

 there is a partial delineation of it, was probably a very low, 

 rocky, and perhaps broken island ; and what is now Glen Tur- 

 ret, must have been a large bay, having two smaller ones in- 

 cluded in its interior. The Gap, — the mouth of Glen Roy, — 

 and the high plane to the north of the projection of Craig- 

 dhu, must then also have formed three considerable bays. 



I shall now leave Loch Roy in its primitive state, in order 

 to take a view of the boundaries and barriers of that of Loch 

 Spean. In doing this, I must entreat attention to the state of 

 appearances in that part of the mutual valley of the Roy and 

 Spean united, which crosses in a semicircular line, from the 

 south-western corner of Ben-y-vaan on the one hand, to the 

 northern projecting point of Aonach-more on the other. 

 From the same species of reasoning which I employed to esta- 

 blish the barrier of Loch Roy, it appears evident, that the bar- 

 rier of Loch Spean, could not have existed above the semi- 

 circular line I have just described, since the two abrupt 

 ends of Shelf 4th, indicating the former existence of Loch 

 Spean, come, if not quite up to the two extreme points of it, 

 at least to within a very short distance of them ; nor is it to 

 be supposed, that this barrier could have been much to the 



vol. ix. p. i. g south-west 



