6 Tatters ALL & Coward, Fauna of Rostheme Mere. 



brook enters, and at the south-east, where the outflow 

 leaves, the lOO feet contour is never more than 600 feet 

 distant from the margin ; in places it approaches within 

 300 feet. 



The village of Rostheme, on the south bank, rises 

 from 100 to 160 feet, and the nearest farm on the north 

 stands at an altitude of 120 feet; the Manor House, on 

 the south-west, is 167 feet, or 100 feet above the normal 

 surface of the mere. The watershed is in most places 

 considerably under 200 feet, and thus the drainage area 

 is small. 



The lake is fed by a few springs and small streamlets 

 and one fair-sized stream, Rostherne Brook. This brook 

 rises in Tabley Moss, about two miles south of the mere, 

 at an altitude of 170 feet. After passing Mere Mere 

 (167 feet) it falls rapidly through a clough or dell, Ros- 

 therne Banks, and enters the raere just below the manor. 

 The next stream of any size has a length of little more 

 than 1,000 feet, and flows through Harper's Bank Wood. 

 The bed of Rostherne Brook is mostly fine gravel and 

 sand, that of the smaller stream almost entirely sandy. 



The outflow, Blackburn's Brook, is at first a wide 

 sluggish stream, with banks which at one time were 

 evidently cut straight and protected, so as to drain the 

 artificial osier bed on its right. It flows from the south- 

 east bend of the mere in an easterly direction, and then 

 bends northward until it joins the Birkin, a tributary of 

 the Bollin. The Bollin formerly flowed into the Mersey, 

 but now empties its waters into the Ship Canal, thus 

 presenting an additional obstacle to the ascension of 

 salmonoid fish. 



The deepest sounding obtained by Captain Cotton 

 was 103^ feet, but our deepest, a little to the south of the 

 centre, was only 100 feet 6 inches. Mr. James Kenyon, 



