508 MR. W. G. CLARKE ON THE MERES OE WRETHAM HEATH. 
which 126 big cart loads were taken, or about forty tons per acre. 
The roots were large, many of them twenty-eight inches in circum- 
ference, sound and of good quality, the best crop Mr. Robert 
Stevenson had ever seen. From half an acre of drumhead garden 
cabbage between fifty and sixty loads were taken. These were 
of excellent weight and quality hut would have been larger had 
cattle cabbage been planted. Carting was quite easy ; in the middle 
of November the bed of Fowlmere was as dry as any upland field. 
Rabbits had burrowed deeply into some parts and the soil brought 
up from the greatest depth was quite dry. During agricultural 
operations part of an old harrow was found in the soil. The wood- 
work had decayed, several iron teeth alone indicating the nature 
of the implement. This might have been a relic of the 1859 — 62 
dry period or even of some earlier occasion. 
The Devil’s Punch Bowl. 
This, the smallest of the four heathland meres, lies to the south- 
west of Fowlmere on the further side of the “ Drove.” Although 
its basin is the most typical in formation of any of these meres, I 
have fewer observations concerning it. A sketch of it by Mr. C. 
J. Staniland appeared in the ‘Graphic’ of October 15th, 1887, 
and the ‘Daily Graphic’ for August 30th, 1890. Both in 1889 
and 1890 there was a good depth of water in the mere. On July 
26th, 1894, there was on the contrary very little and that of inky 
blackness. A similar state of things existed in June, 1898, when 
two Moorhens flew from the water and sheltered among the 
bracken half-way up the slope. On March 18th, 1899, there was 
only a wet spot at the bottom of the basin, and in the summer 
of 1901 it became quite dry, as it still was when I visited the spot 
on May 17th, 1902. Towards the southern edge of the mere was 
a small hollow several feet below the general level of the bed. 
One can never get a better idea of the remarkable character of this 
mere than by standing in the middle of the pit when it is dry. 
On the table-land above, a line of gaunt firs cuts off the outside 
world. Towards the mere there is next the level turf, and then 
a sharp descent of between twenty and twenty-five feet, forming 
the huge circular basin which popular fancy pictured as the 
