270 
BATHYMETRICAL SURVEY OF 
LOCHS OF THE ETIVE BASIN. 
Within the area draining into Loch Etive (see Index Map, Fig. 28) the 
staff of the Lake Survey sounded some twenty lochs, including Loch Awe, 
one of the most important of the Scottish fresh-water lochs, which was 
surveyed by naval officers in 1861, as already mentioned when speaking 
of Loch Lomond, in the Clyde basin, the only other loch in Scotland 
surveyed by the Government. Loch Awe has the distinction of being the 
longest lake in Scotland, and in comparison with it the other lochs in the 
basin are dwarfed into insignificance ; still. Lochs Avich and Tulla are 
good-sized basins, exceeding each a square mile in superficial area, but 
the remaining lochs are mostly very small. Diibh Lochan, near Kings- 
house, drains by the river Etive into the head of Loch Etive ; Loch 
Dochard drains into Loch Tulla, and thence by the river Orchy into Loch 
Awe ; Lochan na Bi, near Tyndrum, drains by the river Lochy, which 
joins the river Orchy just before entering Loch Awe' at Dalmally ; Loch 
Ederline, near the head of Loch Awe, Loch Avich, to the west of the 
central part of Loch Awe, Lochs an Leoid, an Droighinn, and na Gealaich, 
to the west of the lower part of Loch Awe, and the four little hill lochs 
near Portsonachan (Lochs Rainbow, Choire na Cloich, Dhu, and Allt na 
Mult) all drain into Loch Awe by longer or shorter streams ; Loch Sior 
drains into Loch Nant, and thence by the river Nant into Loch Etive at 
Taynuilt; the Black Lochs drain by the Lusragan burn into Loch Etive 
at Connel ferry, while Lochans nan Rath and na Beithe lie on the north 
side of Loch Etive, opposite Connel ferry. The scenery of the district 
is very fine, and the fishing in most of the lochs good. Loch Awe 
contains salmon and Salmo ferox, as well as trout. 
Loch Awe (see Plates CXXII. and CXXITI.). — Loch Awe being so 
well known, and the depth conditions having been known since the pub- 
lication of the Admiralty chart in 1863, no lengthy description is called 
for here. It is extremely elongate, but sinuous, in outline, and is peculiar 
in that a long narrow arm branches off at right angles to the main axis, 
and leads through the Pass of Brander to the outflow (see Fig. 36). As 
already indicated, Loch Awe exceeds in length all other Scottish fresh-water 
lochs, for measured along the central axis from the head of the loch to the 
exit of the river Awe, in the Pass of Brander, it is almost 25 J miles in length. 
Even excluding the narrow arm, and measuring from the head of the loch 
