THE FRESH-WATER LOCHS OF SCOTLAND. 
317 
one of the most beautiful of mountains, with picturesque outline, the 
highest point exceeding 2500 feet; beyond Leitirmhor the granite is 
being quarried for building purposes, leaving a great scar on the 
hillside. To the east of the northern portion of the loch rises Beinn’s 
Tomaine (Ben Stomino) to a height of 1728 feet, along the base of 
which the shore of the loch is thickly wooded. In outline the loch 
resembles somewhat a Wellington boot, with the toe pointing in a 
westerly direction, while the body of the loch trends almost north 
and south. The loch is miles in length, with a maximum breadth 
of nearly a mile, the mean breadth exceeding half a mile. The waters 
of the loch cover an area of about 1630 acres, or over 2J square miles, 
and it drains directly an area of over 24 square miles, but since it 
receives the overflow from Loch Cuil na Sithe, its total drainage area 
exceeds 33 square miles. The maximum depth of 217 feet was 
observed near the foot of the loch, little more than half a mile from 
the northern shore. The volume of water contained in the loch is 
estimated at 4628 millions of cubic feet, and the mean depth at 65J 
feet. The loch was surveyed on September 26 to 29, 1902, and the 
elevation of the lake-surface on commencing the survey was found, 
by levelling from bench-mark, to be 369'9 feet above the sea ; when 
levelled by the officers of the Ordnance Survey on August 29, 1870, 
the elevation was found to be 369*2 feet above sea-level. The highest 
drift-mark observed was 2J feet above the surface of the water at the 
time of the survey, and it was stated that the water might fall to 
the extent of a foot. 
Loch Laoghal contains two deep basins, the larger and deeper in 
the northern portion of the loch, and the smaller and shallower 
towards the head of the loch, separated by a shoaling of the bottom 
about 2J miles from the foot of the loch, where there is a slight 
constriction in the outline. The 50-feet contour-line is continuous, and 
encloses an area about 4 miles in length, extending from quite close 
to the northern end to within half a mile from the south-western end. 
There are two 100-feet basins : the smaller one approaches to within 
less than a mile from the head of the loch, and is three-quarters of a 
mile in length, the maximum depth observed therein being 137 feet, 
about IJ miles from the south-west end; the larger one is over 2 miles 
in length, and approaches to within about 250 yards from the northern 
end, enclosing the deepest part of the loch. The 150-feet area is about 
IJ miles in length, and distant about a quarter of a mile from the 
northern end. The 200-feet area is nearly three-quarters of a mile in 
length, distant less than half a mile from the northern end. The 
longitudinal section on the map shows how rapidly the water deepens 
on proceeding from the northern end along the central line of the loch, 
while the opposite end of the loch is comparatively shallow and the 
slope of the bottom there gentle; it also shows the considerable rise 
