218 THE FRESH-WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND 
devoted to sport, and engenders a higher type of ethics and a superior 
social organisation amongst the rural folk. 
We may begin the examination of the lochs of this large Area at 
Loch Doon, proceed to those on the hills to the west and south-west 
of Loch Doon ; thence by way of Lochs Trool, Dee, Grennoch, 
Whinyeon, Ken, Lochinvar, etc., to Loch Dungeon, and finish our 
tour on the eastern slopes of the Rhinns of Kells. The original paper 
contains forty-five illustrations of the lochs, etc. of this Area. 
Loch Doon is the largest sheet of fresh water in Scotland south of 
Loch Lomond ; it is 5 J miles long by 1 J miles wide in its widest part. 
Its surface is 673 feet above sea-level. Its depth, in the deepest part, 
is 100 feet, but generally it is not over 50 feet deep. Its water is 
rather peaty, and its surroundings are almost treeless. The shores 
are exceedingly rocky or stony, save for a sandy bay now and again. 
Everywhere it is surrounded by mountains and moors, which are 
covered, for the greater part, by grass-like associations of plants. The 
population of the district is extremely scanty ; the only houses are 
those of shepherds or small farmers, and the total number of these will 
scarcely exceed a dozen throughout its whole drainage area. The 
scenery, as may be gathered from the foregoing remarks, is wild and 
lonely ; yet the broad outlines of the loch, flanked by mountains 
picturesquely silhouetted, give it a grandeur peculiarly its own. 
The shores of this loch are, for the major part, entirely bare of 
aquatic vegetation. Indeed, the erosive power of the waves on the 
rocky margins allows no opportunity for the development of aquatic 
plants ; and even in the sandy bays that occur here and there, the 
same power, acting on the shifting sand, prevents any considerable 
growth of littoral vegetation. Occasionally in pools, situated on 
large rocks or in sheltered creeks, a few specimens of Carex Goodenovii 
or Phalaris arundinacea may be seen. A few similar species, with 
scattered specimens of Juncus articulatus and J. supinus, occur on wet, 
sandy places; and between the rocks, here and there, patches of 
Sphagnum cymbifolium or Fontinalis antipyretica may be observed, 
but always in small quantity. Nor do the littoral rocks bear any 
wealth of Bryophytes, although a few of the commoner sub-alpine and 
lowland species may be found. On the whole, it may broadly be 
stated that Loch Doon is destitute of either an aquatic or semi- 
aquatic marginal flora. 
At a few feet above the normal water-level quantities of lichens 
clothe the rocks, and give the littoral a distinctive character. The 
most abundant of these lichens are Lecidea geographica, Parmelia 
omphalodes, and Sphaerophoron coralloides. The first-mentioned is 
so plentiful, and so completely does it overgrow the rocks, that 
many parts of the shore are for considerable distances coloured bright 
