602 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
regret the termination of his official connection with the Society* 
a regret shared, I am sure, by the Fellows of the Society. Let 
us trust that Mr Gordon may long enjoy his well - earned 
retirement. 
The Fellows of the Society are aware that Sir John Murray and 
the late Mr Fred. Pullar commenced, a few years ago, a systematic 
bathymetrical survey of the fresh-water lochs of Scotland, and 
that the work was brought to a stand by the accidental death of 
the younger author. In memory of this talented young man, who 
had been elected a Fellow of the Society shortly before his death, 
Sir John Murray and Mr Laurence Pullar (the late Mr Pullar’s 
father) arranged that the work should be completed at their 
joint expense. 
In the middle of March last, Sir John Murray and family took 
up residence at Rannoch Lodge, standing at the west end of Loch 
Rannoch, in Perthshire, which for a period of four months 
became the centre of operations for the survey of the lakes in the 
surrounding district. From the middle of July till the end of 
October the staff moved gradually westwards and northwards, 
through Perthshire, Argyllshire, Inverness-shire, and Caithness- 
shire. During these seven months the Lake Survey has made 
remarkable progress, under the personal superintendence of Sir 
John Murray, no fewer than 153 lochs, including some of the 
largest and deepest in Scotland, having been completely surveyed, 
the total number of soundings recorded exceeding 23,400. The 
largest number of soundings taken in one lake was 1168, in Loch 
Maree, but the greatest depth was observed in Loch Morar, namely,, 
1009 feet, which exceeds by several hundred feet the depth recorded 
in any other lake in the British islands. The depth was found to 
exceed 200 feet in eighteen of the lakes surveyed, it exceeded 
300 feet in nine of the lakes, it exceeded 400 feet in five of tho 
lakes, and exceeded 500 feet in two lakes. 
In addition to the routine work of taking soundings and 
determining the height of the lochs above sea-level, by levelling 
with a dumpy level from Ordnance Survey bench-marks, regular 
temperature observations, collections of the plankton and bottom 
deposits, and observations of ‘seiches’ were made by the staff* 
some of the observations being extremely interesting. In carrying 
