20 
THE FEESH-WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND 
I am directed by the President and Council of tlie Royal Society to assure my 
Lords that thej fully share the regret expressed by the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
that my Lords should have arrived at such a decision. 
Neither from a topographical nor from a geological point of view can the 
survey of the United Kingdom be considered complete so long as the depths of 
the several inland waters remain unknown, and the absence of adequate data^ 
concerning not only the Scottish lochs, but other large inland waters of the 
United Kingdom, forms, and will continue to form, a very serious obstacle to 
geological research. 
The President and Council do not desire to urge upon my Lords any elaborate 
surveys entailing a large expenditure. They have reason to believe that the most 
important objects of the proposed surveys would be gained if series of soundings 
were carried across the important lakes not yet bathymetrically surveyed, at 
moderate intervals in each case. The exact closeness of the lines of soundings 
and the interval between each two soundings in each line must, in great measure, 
be determined at the time of observation accordi-ng to the results which are from 
time to time obtained ; but it has been suggested that lines of soundings at about 
a quarter of a mile interval, with soundings about 100 yards apart, would probably 
be found generally useful. 
The President and Council venture to remind my Lords that the carrying out 
of such a bathymetrical survey is much facilitated by the fact that the contours of 
the lakes in question have all been already accurately laid down ; also that the 
inland waters of the continent have been carefully surveyed by the several 
European Governments ; and that, though in Scotland only Lochs Lomond and 
Awe have been surveyed (notwithstanding that some of the others are used for 
purposes of navigation), and the English lakes not at all, several of the Irish lakes 
were sounded by the Admiralty surveying officers in the years 1834-39 and in 
1846. 
The President and Council fully appreciate the difficulty which presents 
itself to my Lords in the facts that such bathymetrical surveys as those proposed 
do not fall within the ]3rovince of the Survey Department of the Office of Works, 
and that, since the object sought is not one concerning navigation, they are foreign 
also to the duties of the Admiralty, The object, indeed, of the pro]DOsed survey 
may be most fitly spoken of as geological, but the Geological Survey has no means 
of carrying out such a work. 
The President and Council w^ould, however, venture to urge upon my Lords 
that the proposed survey, though of great scientific importance, is limited in scope 
and special in character, and so far not of a nature likely to establish an undesir- 
able precedent, and they sincerely trust that my Lords may be led to reconsider 
their decision, and may see their way to make some arrangements by which a 
bathymetrical survey of the various inland waters of the United Kingdom not 
yet so surveyed may be speedily carried out. — I have, etc., 
(Signed) M. Fostek, 
Sec. E.S. 
APPENDIX II 
A SMALL volume of press notices, pulpit references, and extracts from private 
letters, all bearing on the ice accident on Airthrey Loch and the death of 
Mr Fred. P. PuUar, was printed and privately circulated at the end of 1901. 
Memorial prizes were given at the High School at Stirling, extending over a 
number of years. Sir John Murray offered three memorial prizes of £50 each 
