CHAPTER V 



Bala Lake Geological features Llan-y-cil Wildfowl Habits of Possible 

 increase of Grebes Coots Efficient watchers Sentinels. 



PRACTICALLY the whole margin of Bala Lake is shingly beach, 

 liable to be flooded a foot or two, or laid bare, at any season 

 of the year, owing to the rapid rise and fall of the mountain 

 streams that feed it. This, together with the absence of 

 islands, and large weed-beds, and the presence of pike, makes 

 it unattractive, as a breeding station, to any considerable 

 number of water-fowl. The estuary of each tributary stream 

 is marked by an extensive delta of gravel, the principal in- 

 lets pointing towards the west. These, and the lacustrine 

 marls underlying part of the Llanuwchllyn end of the valley, 

 are instructive features to the geological student. Boulders 

 and rocks are thickly scattered in every direction, all, or 

 nearly all, of local origin, some of them rounded and worn 

 by friction, others showing but little alteration since they 

 left their native crater. On the northern margin of the 

 lake, a little below Llan-y-cil (" the church in the nook " a 

 name which the situation well deserves), a fossiliferous bed 

 of shale is exposed in the course of a stream, a similar band 

 cropping out on the road near Bwlch-y-groes. At the top 

 of the lake, where there is some boggy ground, and beds of 

 sedges, equisetum, and white water-lily, and on the alder- 

 and willow-fringed promontory off the mouth of the Llafar, 

 a few ducks remain to breed, but the bulk of those which 

 winter here seek safer quarters on the moors, or further 

 afield. As I naturally could not intrude upon such grounds, 

 however, my observations in this direction were chiefly con- 

 fined to the use of a powerful pair of binoculars. 



Although so few wildfowl remain to nest on the lake, 



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