CHARACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF LAKES 575 
Coniston Water has an area of nearly 2 square miles ; the length 
is almost 5J miles, but it is very narrow, the maximum breadth being 
under half a mile. It lies 143 feet above sea-level, and drains by the 
River Crake into the estuary of the Leven in Morecambe Bay. It 
attains a maximum depth of 184 feet, the mean depth is 79 feet, and 
the volume of water is estimated at 4000 million cubic feet. 
Haweswater has an area of a little over half a square mile, while 
the length along the slightly cm"ved axis is over 2J miles. It lies 694 
feet above sea-level, has a maxinmm depth of 103 feet, a mean depth 
of 40 feet, and is estimated to contain 589 million cubic feet of water. 
From the northern shore at the mouth of the Measand Beck, a large 
delta, bearing upon it cultivated fields — the only arable land of the 
surrounding district — projects into the lake, narrowing it abruptly from 
half a mile to about 100 yards. Haweswater and Ulls water are the 
only two lakes of the Lake District having their outflow at the north- 
east end ; their surplus waters find their way ultimately north-west- 
wards to the Solway Firth by tributaries of the River Eden. 
Ullswater, the second largest lake of the district, has an area of 
about 3J square miles, and its length measured along the centre line 
is nearly miles. Whilst most of the other lakes have a slightly 
curved form, Ullswater presents two abrupt changes of direction, the 
general trend, however, being north-east and south-west. There are 
a number of islands at the upper end^ all composed of masses of solid 
rock rising steeply from a great depth of water. The lake lies 
476 feet above sea-level, and has a maximum depth of 205 feet, 
a mean depth of 83 feet, and the volume of water is estimated 
at 7870 million cubic feet. 
Windermere, the largest lake in England, has an area of more 
than 5J square miles, and its length measured along the curved axis, 
which trends north and south, is 10 J miles. The lake as a whole is 
surrounded by flatter shores and lower hills than most of the others, 
and its indentations are more numerous and varied. Its surface is 
the nearest to sea-level, being only 130 feet above it. A number of 
islands, all low and flat, occur about midway between the north and 
south ends, the largest of which is Belle Isle. The maximum depth, 
found at the northern end, is 219 feet, and the mean depth 78 feet. 
The lake is estimated to contain 12,250 million cubic feet of water, 
and it drains by the River Leven into Morecambe Bay. 
The lakes of the Snowdon region and of that part of Carnarvon- Wales, 
shire to the east of Snowdon were surveyed by Dr Jehu in 1900.^ 
They are much smaller in area than the English lakes surveyed by 
Dr Mill, but some of them rival in depth even the largest of the latter, 
1 Jehu, A Batliymetrical and Geological Study of the Lakes of Snowdonia and 
Eastern Carnarvonshire," Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xl. p. 419, 1902. 
