THE FRESH-WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND. 
315 
July 23, 1870, the elevation was 41 D4 feet above sea-level. The level 
of the loch has been raised over a foot by means of a dam above the 
first island, and it was proposed to raise it still further to the extent of 
2 or 3 feet. At the time of the survey the highest drift-mark observed 
was about 2 feet above the water, which might fall about a foot. 
The floor of Loch Syre is irregular, as might be expected from its 
extremely irregular outline and many islands. The deepest water was 
found in the south-eastern angle of the loch, where there is a small 
area over 10 feet in depth, the deepest cast in 12 feet having been 
taken about 100 yards from the eastern shore and 150 yards from the 
southern shore. Between the deepest sounding and the southern shore 
the bottom rises to 9 feet and sinks again to 11 feet close inshore. 
The area of the lake-floor covered by less than 10 feet of water is about 
97 acres, or 92 per cent, of the entire area of the loch. The temperature 
of the surface water on the date of the survey was 54°-7 Fahr. 
