36 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYSICAL FEATURES 
Salmo levenensis. Also Loch Borralaigh, with its char and subter- 
ranean outlet communicating with Loch Crassapuil below ; and 
hundreds of others, scarcely one of which is not worth some passing 
notice, which, however, our space forbids us to enumerate. Yet 
we cannot pass by the strange little pools which perch high on the 
shoulder of Ben Hope, holding in their clear depths innumer- 
able char of goodly size ; nor can we omit to mention the drearier 
beauties of Loch Laoghal, Lochs Slam and Craggie near Tongue, 
nor of the many other lochlets which nestle near the base of Ben 
Laoghal. 
Of the West Sutherland rivers our choice is the Inver. Wild 
and rugged, and headlong in its frantic efforts to reach the sea at 
Loch Inver, throughout its lower reaches, in its upper portions it 
is calm and smooth, wide and deep, expanding into little lochs 
and great ranges of salmon-spawning beds. It is fringed with 
birch, spruce, and fir — a lovely wooded ravine — in its lower 
reaches ; but in its upper, save at the spot where it leaves Loch 
Assynt, is almost treeless. Thus it offers the finest combination 
of scenery of any river in the county. !N"ext in loveliness is the 
Kirkaig, if not indeed in its own individualities, rivalling the Inver. 
Its magnificent waterfall, 68 feet in height, and the dark romantic 
pool below, its rugged, narrow, and tortuous course, and its 
uniformly- wooded sides, make it almost, if not quite, the equal in 
beauty of its sister stream. Then comes the Laxford, by its name 
suggestive of great and goodly store of salmon ; and then the 
melancholy Strath of Dionard, near Durness. Savagely wild is 
the Dionard or G-rudie in its upper reaches and at shingly-shored 
Loch Dionard ; melancholy, dreary, and weird, throughout the last 
ten miles of its course, before it falls into the Kyle of Durness. 
Of many minor streams we could recount their beauties and 
sing their praises, such as those of Trailigill and Loanan, and the 
marvellous cold-stream burn or Ault-an-oul, in the limestone of 
Assynt, or the wild tumbling burns of Glens Dhu and Coul — two 
glens, perhaps without their equal in scenic effect. 
