4 
THE FRESH-WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND 
to sanction the proposed surveys. The correspondence on this subject 
will be found appended to this Introduction (Appendix I.). 
Bathy metrical charts of Loch Lomond and Loch Awe were 
published by the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty about 
the year I860, based on surveys undertaken by naval officers. Some 
of the general charts of the Scottish coasts published by the Admiralty 
show a few soundings down the centre of the lochs of the Caledonian 
Canal, but the charts of Loch Lomond and Loch Awe were the only 
systematic surveys of Scottish fresh-water lochs that existed at the 
time the above-mentioned representations were laid before the 
Government. It is true that previous to this date many Scottish 
proprietors and others had made most praiseworthy endeavours to 
ascertain the depths of many of the lochs, but these were generally not 
laid down on charts or made public. In the year 1887 Mr J. Y. 
Buchanan recorded a depth of 175 fathoms in Loch Morar ; and in 
1888 I sounded all along this loch, and recorded a depth of 180 
fathoms at one spot. At about the same time both Mr Buchanan 
and I took very many soundings in Loch Lochy and Loch Ness. I 
had also taken many soundings in Loch Katrine and other Scottish 
lochs before attempting any systematic survey. In the year 1888 the 
late Mr J. S. Grant Wilson, of the Geological Survey, published in the 
Scottish Geographical Magazine an account of Lochs Tay, Earn, 
Rannoch, and Tummel, with special reference to the glaciation of the 
district, and he gave small contoured maps of these lochs, in which 
the position of some of the deeper soundings was laid down. This 
represents the state of knowledge of the depths of the Scottish fresh- 
water lochs at the time when I commenced, with the assistance of 
my young friend the late Mr Fred. P. Pullar, to attack the problem 
in a systematic way about 1897. We were led to take up this self- 
imposed task because, as above stated, there was no hope of the work 
being undertaken bv any Government department. 
A start was made with the lochs of the Forth basin, but a good 
deal of preliminary work had to be undertaken before quite satis- 
factory methods were arrived at for carrying on the work of the 
survey. Indeed, some of the lochs were surveyed two and even three 
times with different sounding-machines, and by different methods of 
determining the position of the soundings. When these initial 
difficulties were overcome the work proceeded as rapidly as the time 
at our disposal permitted, being at that time regarded as a holiday 
task. The first paper — on the lochs of the Trossachs and Callander 
district — was published in April 1900; and a second paper, deahng 
with the other lochs of the Forth basin and two lochs of the Tay 
basin, appeared in March 1901. 
It so happened that I had to visit the East during the winter of 
