. The earth and its inhabitants ... labyrinth it is only after patientobservation that we are able to distinguishbetween islands and mainland, lakes andarms of the sea. The natives, indeed,apply the same term indifferently to lakesand firths, designating both as lochs,and many a promontory is named bythem as if it were an island. Loch Etiveis one of the most remarkable of thesesheets of water, which are at the sametime arms of the sea and inland lakes. Thesea actually penetrates up that firth for adistance of 18 miles ; but its bed consistsof two distinct basins, placed end to end,and separate
. The earth and its inhabitants ... labyrinth it is only after patientobservation that we are able to distinguishbetween islands and mainland, lakes andarms of the sea. The natives, indeed,apply the same term indifferently to lakesand firths, designating both as lochs,and many a promontory is named bythem as if it were an island. Loch Etiveis one of the most remarkable of thesesheets of water, which are at the sametime arms of the sea and inland lakes. Thesea actually penetrates up that firth for adistance of 18 miles ; but its bed consistsof two distinct basins, placed end to end,and separated by a bar, hardly coveredwith 6 feet of water. At Connel Sound,which lies at the entrance of the lowerbasin, the tides rush past with the noiseof a cataract. Loch Etive attains a depth of 445 feet, whilst the depth of the seaoutside hardly exceeds 150 feet. Loch Fleet, another of these firths, has beenconverted into a fresh-water lake by means of a simple wall built across its mouth.*• A. Geikie, Scenery and Geology of Gr 25 Miles. NOETHEEN SCOTLAND. 341 Along many parts of the coast the water in the lochs resembles that of LochStennis, in the Orkneys, which is briny at one end and fresh at the other ; andlike it they have two distinct faunas and floras.* What, then, is the cause of the contrast between the two coasts of Scotland, acontrast which may also be observed with regard to the Baltic and Atlantic coastsof Scandinavia ? Why have the ancient gulfs opening out upon the GermanOcean been filled up with alluvium and drift, whilst the innumerable indenta-tions on the west have retained their primitive forms ? It is once more theglaciers to which this phenomenon must be attributed. In the glacial age, as inour own days, the moisture-laden winds came from the west and south-west, andprecipitation, mostly in the form of snow, was consequently most considerable alon»-the western slopes. But they were not torrents which carried the waters back into Fig. 166.—
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
