208 Philip Lake— Bala Lake and Fdve.r System, 



Is Bala Zaice a roch-hasin ? 



There are only three directions in which we can leave Bala 

 Lake and travel towards the sea without crossing the contour-line 

 of 1,000 feet. 



The first of these is north-east, up the valley of Nant Meloch, and 

 along the road to Corwen, where the greatest height to which we are 

 compelled to rise is 891 feet, about 1^ mile from Bethel Inn. 



The second is east, along the course of the Dee ; and this is 

 necessarily a continuous descent. 



The third is south-west, along the valley of the Bala fault, where 

 we can reach the sea without ever rising higher than 774 feet. 



Elsewhere the lake is completely shut in by the 1,000 foot contour- 

 line, and there is no reason to suspect the existence of any former 

 outlet. 



I have not examined very closely the valley of Nant Meloch ; 

 but I believe that in this direction the rocky floor rises considerably 

 above the level of the bottom of the lake. Even now, where the 

 bottom of the valley is 600 or 700 feet above the sea, the valley i& 

 narrow and steep- sided, and it seems improbable that the solid 

 floor lies two or three hundred feet below the present level. The 

 valley, however, deserves a more careful examination than I have 

 been able to give it. 



If we follow the present course of the Dee from Bala Lake, we 

 pass first over a wide alluvial plain until we near the ridge which 

 crosses the line of the river at Bodweni, about 2^ miles east of Bala. 

 Here the Dee enters a narrow and rather steep-sided gorge, and 

 is closely hemmed in by hills of solid rock ; and a little farther on, 

 the bed itself is formed of rock at a height of about 495 feet above 

 the sea, or 95 feet above the bottom of the lake. So narrow is the 

 valley at this point, and so close lie the exposures of solid rock, 

 that there seems to be no room for any drift-filled gorge ; and there 

 can be but little doubt that in this direction at least, as Eamsay 

 pointed out, the lake is rock-bound. 



South-westerly, however, along the line of the Bala fault, it is 

 impossible to prove that the solid floor of the valley is at any point 

 higher than the bottom of the lake. Following upwards the course 

 of the Dyfrdwy, we find that at Tal-y-bont the stream flows over 

 rock in situ at a height of more than 600 feet. But the valley here 

 is very wide, and for many hundred yards south-east of the stream 

 there is nothing to be seen but drift. It is quite possible, therefore, 

 that another channel may exist which is now concealed. 



No more rock is exposed in sifil in the bottom of the valley until 

 we have passed the watershed and proceeded down the other slope 

 to Drws-y-nant-isaf. A few hundred yards below the railway 

 station the river runs in a little rocky gorge, the floor of which is 

 also made of rock ; and the height of this floor is about 460 feet 

 above the sea, that is to say, about 60 feet above the bottom of the 

 lake. But at this point, exactly, in fact, where it enters the gorge, 

 the river has left the line of the Bala fault and has been deflected 



