2 
The Scottish Naturalist. 
opposite the Pass of Brander. It was seen by many people. 
John Maclntyre, boatman at Taycreggan, made the statement 
amongst others. It was seen to follow in the wake of the loch 
steamer for a long distance. In 1878 it was last seen in August. 
In 1879 it was once seen in September, and in 1889 it was seen 
as late as November. Many other eye-witnesses have made 
similar statements, and there cannot be any doubt that the state- 
ments are correct. A little more recent information on the 
subject is added by Dr. John Duncan, who was long resident at 
Hay field on Loch Awe side. I give his account fully, as it is 
considered of great interest and also because it is desirable 
to place the facts on record up to date. 
This gentleman writes me as follows : — " For ten years, up to 
1883, we spent our autumn holiday on Loch Awe side, and 
frequently a portion of April. I think there were few years in 
which we did not see one or more seals in the Loch. This was 
most frequently in autumn, but I have also seen them in spring. 
On one occasion, a bright and absolutely still day, I saw two 
quite close to our boat, one of them not more than fifteen or 
twenty yards off. I remember a year in whicli for weeks we 
never went out fishing without seeing one somewhere between 
Innishail and the Brander Pass. I have several times seen a 
seal in the upper pools of the River Awe, and on one occasion 
some of us were fishing above the rock with the gangway round 
it ^ when we noticed a seal rapidly diving and rising again in the 
river. Presently a salmon threw itself clean out of the water on 
the other side into a small basin, from which it could not get 
back into the river. It lay splashing there until a navvy, working 
on the railway, which was then being made, came down, knocked 
the fish on the head and walked away with it. He held it up for 
us to see, and it looked about 15 or 16 lbs." 
In connection with this matter it is not uninteresting to notice 
first the peculiarity of Loch Awe, in that the inflowing and out- 
flowing rivers, Orchy and Awe, are both at the same end of the loch. 
The Awe is a very rapid, heavy river descending 118 feet in about 
four miles, but the Orchy is dead and stagnant as far up as 
Dalmally, and there is much swampy meadow-land by its sides 
subject to flooding. Now there is a traditional account that 
' I.e., Close to the outlet of Loch Awe from the Brander Pass and just at 
the glide above the first rough stream of the river (H-B). 
