CLYDE SEA AREA. 45 



complete series of regularly-spaced observations of temperature has been taken. 

 Through this and the narrow, shallow Largs Channel on the east of the Cumbraes, 

 the Arran Basin communicates with the Dunoon Basin. 



The Central Branch runs from the north of Arran, throwing off a shallow branch into 

 the Kyles of Bute, practically due north to Otter Ferry, where it communicates directly 

 with Loch Fyne. It is the deepest part of the Arran Basin, and the bottom is very 

 irregular. At the head it shoals up rapidly, stopping in the very shallow Loch Gilp, and 

 Loch Fyne joins it across a sharply defined bar of no great depth. 



Although the three main branches of the Basin have individual peculiarities which 

 subject the water contained in them to special conditions, the Arran Basin is essentially 

 one. The orographical map (Plate 2 part I.) shows that the water over 50 fathoms in 

 depth in the three branches is continuous, the main trough running almost S.S.E. from off 

 Kilfinan to off Largybeg, and about the middle, off Inchmarnoch, sending a branch down 

 Kilbrannan Sound as far as Carradale. The main trough of over 80 fathoms runs straight 

 across the mouth of Kilbrannan Sound, from off Tarbert to off Corrie. 



The relatively small number of stations at which observations were made in this 

 great division makes it necessary to treat it somewhat generally. Accordingly, the record 

 of each station will first be considered briefly, and then the conditions of the deep part of 

 the Basin will be discussed as a whole. 



Only a few irregular observations were made in the southern part of the West Arran 

 Basin, and the results of them are referred to when describing the general temperature 

 sections. ' 



Observations off Carradale. — The deepest part of Kilbrannan Sound, between 

 Imachar and Carradale, is extremely irregular in its configuration, and the station was not 

 always exactly the same. Water of depths sometimes exceeding 80 fathoms occurs close to 

 shallows of 20 fathoms or less. The observations are all, however, characteristic of the 

 deepest part of the West Arran Basin. 



[Table 



