Little Loch Broom is also a secure but an useless harbour; but Loch Greinord is nearly an open bay. Pol Ewe is not only capacious but safe, and is the sta tion of the Stornoway packet, as well as the seat of a valuable salmon fishery. Gairloch, next to it, is an open harbour, but a good one, while it is also the centre of one of the most extensive cod fisheries on this coast,—a fishery that might be much extended, were it not for the want of persevering industry.
While Loch Torridon, like Loch Broom, contains one. of these large and now nearly useless establish ments,it is also one of the largest and most magnificent inlets in Scotland, its total depth being twelve miles. It is divided into three parts, of which the two inte rior form spacious basins with narrow entrances, shel tered from every thing, and capable of accommodating large fleets. Loch Carron, including Loch Kishorn, penetrates even deeper into the country; and, though comparatively open, it also offers secure and extensive harbours, while it is the seat of two Highland villages of unusual maEnitude. It is interesting, in a physical view, as giving indications of its having once been a fresh water lake, which, by the gradual wearing down of its barrier, has at length admitted the sea.
Loch Alsh, including Loch Duich and Loch Long, is a singularly intricate and spacious inlet, formed conjointly between the island of Sky and the mainland.
Its total depth may be taken at twelve miles, and it of fers the best anchorages on the western coast; that of the Cailleach stone, celebrated in the history of Ilaco's great expedition, being the common resort of ships making the inner passage to the north, as is that of the Kylehaken also. Loch Duich in itself forms one of the most engaging scenes on the west coast. Loch Hourn, succeeding to the southward, forms the next deep in dentation in the land; and while it also offers spacious and secure harbours, scarcely required where almost every opening is an anchorage, it comprises the grand est series of wild and picturesque scenery which is to be found on the western coast, not yielding indeed to any portion of Scotland. The narrowness of its upper portion, and the precipitous and rocky nature of the mountains, with the wild wood every where dispersed, gives it a character of ornament, superadded to subli mity and rudeness, which is rarely equalled.
If Loch Nevish equals Loch Hourn in space and se curity as a harbour, it is without beauty; yet, in for mer days, both these lochs were valuable as the chief resort of the herring, which has long since abandoned them. Hence the principal inducement for a new and excellent road to the former, branching from the Glen More, which is now nearly useless. Loch Morrer, being a fresh water lake, ought to have been enumerat ed with the lakes; but it is separated from the sea by so very minute an interval, that it seems almost to take its rank here. The joint inlet of Lochananougal and Loch Aylort is spacious, but does not form a good or useful harbour. It derives some consideration, how ever, from its being the seat of the nearly useless ferry from Arasaik to Sky, and from the excellent new road by which it communicates with Fort William. Loch Moidart, however spacious and deep, is rendered use less from its intricacy, and from the difficulty of get ting out to sea in westerly winds.
Of the western inlets, Loch Sunart is among the deepest, since its length from the entrance to the ex tremity exceeds twenty miles. As a harbour it is end less, yet unnecessary; being superseded by that of Tohermory in Mull. Its almost sole use is to form a water communication with Strontian; but its margin, which is often very striking and picturesque, presents an interesting circumstance in the remains of the an cient Caledonian forest, consisting of oaks not yet dead, and probably not less than 1000 years old, the trunks of which measure from twenty to twenty-five feet in circumference.
The Linnhe Loch is, if not the largest, the most im portant inlet on the western shore of the Highlands; and if we include Loch Eil, it even rivals Loch Fyne in length. The total length from the point of Morven to Fort William is thirty-two miles, and that of the western branch of Loch Eil is about nine. It is pro perly the continuation of the Glen More; nor is it dif ficult to imagine that it once penetrated deeper, possi bly even to the Murray Frith, and that the solid por tion of this great valley has been chiefly produced by the accumulation of alluvial matters. Its importance, as giving access to a large coast, as well as by leading to the Caledonian canal, is manifest; and is rendered evident to observation by the number of coasting ves sels by which it is perpetually navigated.