Awe, a lake and a river of the central Argyllshire, both easily accessible since the opening (1 July 1880) of the final section of the Callander and Oban railway, Loch Awe station at the foot of the lake being 48¾ miles NNW of Callander, 64¾ of Stirling, and 101 of Edinburgh. A fine hotel, in the Scottish Baronial style, has been erected near the station. The lake commences at a point 3 miles E of the head of Loch Craignish, and 8 NE of the W end of the Crinan Canal, and extends, in a north-easterly direction, to the eastern skirts of Ben Cruachan at the mouth of Glenorchy. Its length is 22¾ miles; its breadth varies between 3 furlongs and 1¼ mile, or 3¼ miles where it sends off the river Awe; and its altitude above sea-level is 118 feet. Its outline, all down to the last 6 miles, is pretty uniform, or has only such indentations as do not prevent it from being a continuous belt of water; but its outline over the last 6 miles has the form of an expansion of the belt, forking at its end into two offsets, the one round the SE of Ben Cruachan to receive the Orchy river, the other round the SW of Ben Cruachan to send off the river Awe. Its basin, round the head and along the upper quarter, is low ground embosoming swamps and tumulated with hills; over all the central parts is flanked by parallel ranges of high hills with moorish summits; and, around all the foot, is overhung by alpine mountains, with the monarch Ben Cruachan (3611 feet) grandly dominant in the front. Its general appearance, in a comprehensive view, looks as if the head were the foot, as if the NE offset were the head, and as if the NW offset, or real foot, were a bay branching from the side. The original outlet of its Superfluence was really at the present head, along a vale, south-westward to Loch Crinan, near the W end of the Crinan Canal; and the present outlet appears to have been formed by an earthquake stroke through the SW skirt of Ben Cruachan, and is a profound ravine or gorge, leading to Loch Etive. The scenery is tame at the head, and Sublime at the foot; exhibits great diversity, both in its main characteristics and in the intermediate ones which connect and modify them; and displays its force of feature in a reverse order to that of most Highland lakes, or with progressive increase, not from foot to head but from head to foot. The upper reaches present very little character; the middle reaches show pleasing pictures, without much brilliance, and with little better than gradual ascents on each side to the distance of about 4 miles, diversified with heights, hollows, and the beds of burns; and the lower reaches rise rapidly into the utmost magnificence, in all styles of imposing landscape, from richly beautiful to overwhelmingly sublime. The margins, in most parts, but chiefly toward the foot, are intricated with baylets and headlands, and considerably embellished with verdure or with wood; and the bosoms of the central and the lower portions are gemmed with picturesque islands. The views all below Port Sonachan, or below the point at which the road comes down from Inverary, or over the lower 8 miles, are not excelled in magnificence by those of any other lake scenery in Britain. ` The shores and islands, with their farms, and woods, and edifices, look smiling and lovely, the mountains in the E, Ben-laoidh, Ben-a-Cleidh, and Meall-nan Tighearnan, look stern and noble; the cuts and openings amongst them into the interior glens look wild and mysterious; and the monster mass of Ben Cruachan, rising right up from all the northern margins of both neck and arms, and soaring steeply to the clouds, looks overpoweringly majestic. The lake here, in spite of being at its greatest breadth, and even with the aid of its branching offsets, appears almost dwarfed into a pool within the mighty magnitude of its mountain framework; and yet it draws a keener attention from the observer to the beauty of its own bosom and banks, and imparts to him from this a more thrilling delight than if it lay within smooth green hills, or upon an embellished plain. ' Some of the most interesting objects on its banks will be noticed under Kilchnrn, Glenorchy, Cladich, and the principal mountains; and the most interesting of its islands will be noticed in our articles on Innishail, I nnis-F raoch, Innis-Chonnel, and Innis-Errich. The depth of the lake, in several parts, is 70 fathoms. Its waters contain salmon, salmo-ferox, common trout, pike, perch, char, two or three species of sea-trout, and some other kinds of fish. The salmon abound most in the NE offset, toward the mouth of the Orchy river, but are found also in sheltered baylets and creeks. The salmo-ferox run from 6 to 20 lbs; one of 39½ lbs. was caught in 1866 in the upper pool of the river Awe. The common trout abound more or less in various parts, according to the situation of the feeding-grounds, and average ¾ lb. The pike are thought to be of recent importation, and they have made great ravages among the smaller and more delicate kinds of fish. The char frequent the head of the lake, around the place of its original outlet. The lake lies partly in Lorn, partly in Argyll district; and, from the influx of the Avich rivulet on its left side, about 9 miles from its head, all downward to its foot, it forms the boundary between these two districts. Its islands, shores, and flanks were distributed, in the mediæval times, among the clans Campbell, Macarthur, and Macgregor; and its basin gave to the Campbells their slogan or war-cry, ` It's a far call to Lochow ! ' intimating derision of any attempt of foes to reach or penetrate its powerful fastnesses.
The river Awe runs from the extremity of the NW offset of the lake, 5 miles north-westward to Loch Etive, at Bunawe. It steals slowly and silently from the lake into a narrow, deep, tremendous gorge, the Pass of Brander; rushes thence along a rocky bed, much obstructed by reefs and boulders; and sometimes is slow enough to form a pool or a ford, but generally careers headlong in a succession of rapids and cataracts. Its width averages about 45 yards; and its depth varies from 2 or 3 feet to 20. Its waters abound with trout and salmon, and afford excellent sport in rod fishing; but they severely test the skill and hardihood of the angler, and can scarcely anywhere be satisfactorily fished without wading. Sea-trout ascend the river in considerable numbers. The salmon plays in it with more attraction than in almost any other river in Scotland; and the salmo-ferox ascends the streamlets falling into it to spawn. The river's banks, in places terribly savage and wildly romantic, in others are fair with trees; - yet, for about three-fourths of their entire range, from the commencement of the Pass of Brander downward, they are properly not banks at all, but cliffs and precipices. Their height and steepness, too, especially along the Pass, are most imposing. The crags rise often from the water like a wall along most of the Pass, showing no space or level at their base, but descending sheer to the river's brink. The height of them at one place, measured from base to crest, is no less than 1308 feet. The Pass, indeed, through all its length, is a gorge; and, at its lower end, is almost blocked by two confronting rocks, so as there to present an appearance somewhat similar to that of the lock of a canal; and it formerly was overhung by entangling woods. It always, nevertheless, was a point of transit or thoroughfare between the regions of Glenorchy and West Lorn; and it is believed to have anciently had some sort of rude bridge; yet, even with aid of either bridge or boat or other contrivance, it never could be traversed without much danger, or by any but a sure-footed mountaineer; for it was barred by a mural ascent still called the Ladder Rock, and long commanded by a fortalice on the crown of the ascent. But now the Pass is crossed by a substantial bridge on the line of public road from Stirling and Dumbarton to Oban, and by a three-span railway viaduct. The Pass was the scene in 1300 of an exploit of Sir William Wallace; and in 1368 of a severe skirmish between King Robert Bruce and Macdougal of Lorn. A spot near the bridge, too, is the scene of Sir Walter Scott's Highland Widow. See pp. 134-152 of Dorothy Wordsworth's Tour in Scotland (ed. by Princ. Shairp, 1874); P. G. Hamerton's A Painter's Camp in the Highlands (1862; 2d ed. 1868); and an article in the Cornhill for Jan. 1881.—Ord. Sur., shs. 37,45,1876.
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