MR. W. 0. CLARKE ON THE MERES OF WRETHAM IIBATH. 501 
the sand.” When a schoolboy at Thetford he had angled fine 
perch out of it, and thought it was artificially stored with fish after 
being dry. For over a hundred years there seem to have been no 
references to the meres, until M r. Henry Stevenson wrote an excellent 
account of his visit on August 8th, 1869. Ten years previously 
Kingmere was quite dry. A hole about four feet deep was then 
dug in the middle of the mere, but supplied no water. There are 
traces of some such excavation now. An old shepherd once told 
me that nettles of gigantic size grew in the bed of the mere at this 
time. In the hot summer of 1868 the water was very low in all 
the meres but they were never quite dry. It was recorded then, and 
a similar state of affairs has occurred several times since, that in 
very wet seasons the waters of Kingmere have flowed over the 
highway on its eastern side till the horses were knee-deep in passing 
through, and covered the low-lying part of the heathland for a mile 
or so. The members of the Ordnance Survey visited this district 
in 1882 when all the meres were very full of water. Kingmere 
was then about 250 yards long and 150 wide at its widest part. 
Mr. T. Southwell, who has kindly allowed me to see his notes, 
records that on June 5th, 1882, all the meres were very full of 
water. On Kingmere there were two old Shovelers with broods of 
young — one had eight — some Coots, and several Little Grebe, and 
a similar record was made on May 29th, 1884, when, despite the 
drought, the waters were higher than in the previous year. At 
Kingmere, on May 19th, 1887, Mr. Southwell saw the following 
birds, viz., Pochard, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Shoveler, Green Sand- 
piper, Cuckoo, and Stone Curlew, and a Gadwall on the wash-pit 
close by. 
My personal acquaintance with the meres dates from 1889. At 
four visits between April and September of that year the water in 
Kingmere was at a medium height, namely about twenty feet from 
the crown of the road to the verge of the pool. The levels changed 
but little during 1890. After a heavy shower of rain on September 
7th a large number of Stone Curlews flew down to the mere from 
the surrounding heathland, all whistling during flight, and 
apparently finding food among the scrubby grass and rushes 
that surround the pool. On April 2nd, 1892, the meres were 
extremely high. Thousands of empty shells of Limncea stagnalis 
floated about close to the edge of the water. Twenty -seven Coot 
