104 
BATHYMETRICAL SURVEY OF 
young were destroyed by excursionists. Near the middle of the north 
side of the loch, and about 100 yards from the shore, is a mound of 
stones (two of which were above the water on the date of the survey), 
said to have been put down to indicate a sandbank. The Lunan burn 
at the exit of the loch is a long weedy stretch with no perceptible 
current, the fall to the Loch of Drumellie being only 10 feet in a mile. 
The Loch of Clunie is triangular in outline, with the apex pointing 
south. The diameter from east to west and from north to south is 
nearly equal, the length from east to west being rather less than two- 
thirds of a mile, while the maximum breadth is slightly less, the mean 
breadth being one-third of a mile, or 55 per cent, of the length. Its 
waters cover an area of 134 acres, or over one-fifth of a square mile, 
and it drains directly an area of nearly 8 square miles, but since 
it receives the outflow from the Lochs of Butterstone, Lowes, and 
Craiglush, its total drainage area is over 16^ square miles — ^an area 
nearly 78 times greater than the area of the loch. Over 80 soundings 
were taken, the maximum depth observed being 69 feet. The volume 
of water contained in the loch is estimated at 170,265,000 cubic feet, 
and the mean depth at 29 feet, or 42 per cent, of the maximum depth. 
The length of the loch is 47 times the maximum depth, and 112 times 
the mean depth. The Loch of Clunie forms, generally speaking, a 
simple basin, but with a few minor undulations of the bottom. The 
25-feet basin corresponds approximately with the outline of the loch, 
but the 50-feet basin is somewhat irregular in outline, owing to two 
elevations of the lake-floor : (1) Near the north-east angle of the loch, 
where a sounding of 24 feet was taken, with depths of 33 and 35 feet 
en one side and depths of 52 and 69 feet on the other ; and (2) a short 
distance to the west, where a depth of 45 feet was observed, with 52 
feet on one side and 60 feet on the other. These two elevations give 
rise to a peculiar constriction in the outline of the 50 -feet basin, 
and the shallower elevation is the more striking because of its close 
proximity to the deepest part of the loch, the maximum depth of 69 
feet having been found comparatively close to the eastern shore. A 
moderately steep slope was observed off the northern shore, opposite 
the east lodge of Forneth House, where a depth of 14 feet was found 
about 60 feet from the shore, equal to a gradient of 1 in 4-3. The area 
of the lake-floor covered by less than 25 feet of water is about 68 acres, 
or 51 per cent, of the total area of the loch; that covered by water 
between 25 and 50 feet in depth is about 39 acres, or 29 per cent. ; and 
that covered by more than 50 feet of water is about 27 acres, or 20 per 
cent, of the entire area of the loch. The Loch of Clunie was surveyed 
on June 4, 1903, and the elevation of the lake-surface above the sea 
was determined, by levelling from bench-mark, as being 156*55 feet; 
when levelled by the Ordnance Survey officers on September 12, 1899, 
the elevation was found to be 156*3 feet. 
