420 MR T. J. JEHU ON 



II. Previous Work on British Lakes. 



1. Scotland. — Previous to the year 1883 the only fresh- water lakes of which a 

 systematic survey had been taken were Lochs Lomond and Awe. The work was carried 

 out in the interests of navigation, and bathy metrical charts of these two lochs were 

 published by the Hydrographic department of the Admiralty. 



During the years 1883-84 representations were made to the Government by the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh and by the Royal Society of London, urging upon it the 

 desirability, in the interests of science, of executing a bathymetrical survey of the inland 

 waters of the United Kingdom. But unfortunately the Government declined to carry 

 out the work. 



In the year 1888, Mr J. E. Grant- Wilson published in the Scottish Geographical 

 Magazine (vol. iv. p. 251) a paper entitled " A Bathymetrical Survey of the Chief 

 Perthshire Lochs and their Relation to the Glaciation of that District." The lakes he 

 deals with are Lochs Tay, Earn, Rannoch, and Tummel, of which he gives coloured 

 maps and soundings with some sections. His conclusions are that all these lochs lie 

 in rock-basins, and that Loch Tay, a part of the bottom of which is situated below sea- 

 level, belongs to the type known as a deflection-basin. 



In 1900 Sir John Murray and the late Mr Fred Pullar published in the Geo- 

 graphical Journal (vol. xv. p. 309) an account of "A Bathymetrical Survey of the 

 Fresh-water Lochs of Scotland." It deals with the lochs of the Trossachs and Callander 

 district, namely, Lochs Katrine, Arklet, Achray, Vennachar, Drunkie, Lubnaig, Voil, and 

 Doine. The paper is illustrated by coloured maps, with the subaqueous contour-lines 

 marked. The only lake of which the bottom reaches below sea-level is Loch Katrine. 

 Appended to this paper are some notes contributed by Messrs Peach and Horne on the 

 geology and glaciation of the district. The conclusion arrived at is that " the soundings 

 of the various lakes in the basin of the Forth above Callander, when viewed in connection 

 with the geological structure and glacial phenomena of that area, furnish strong evidence 

 in support of the theory of their excavation by ice-action." 



2. The Lake District. — During 1874-75, two papers were published in the Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. (vol. xxx. p. 96; vol. xxxi. p. 152) by the late Mr Clifton Ward 

 on the " Origin of the Lake-Basins of Cumberland." In the first paper he discussed 

 Derwent-water, Bassenthwaite, Buttennere, Crummock, and Lowes- water ; in the second, 

 Wastwater, Grasmere, Windermere, Coniston-water, and Codale, Easdale, and other 

 tarns. Plans of the lakes were given, with the positions of the soundings marked by 

 numbers, indicating the depths in feet at those points. Sections were also added to 

 illustrate the form of the valleys, the depth of the lakes, the height of the mountains, 

 and the probable thickness of the ice. Ward found that some of the larger lakes had 

 depths reaching below sea-level. When, however, the true dimensions are laid down to 

 scale, he was struck by " the insignificance of the hollows in which the lakes lie as- 





