8 
SLAPTON LEY. 
AVING resided for a year almost on the shores of this 
famous water, I am enabled to write an account of it 
which I hope will interest some of the readers of 
Nature Notes. xiOias 
It is situated in South Devon, in that part of Start Bay where 
the coast faces eastwards, and is the largest lake in the county ; 
its length is about two miles, its greatest width some 800 yards, 
and the area 237 acres. Separated from the sea merely by a 
bank of pebbles and sand, along which runs the Dartmouth and 
Kingsbridge coach road, the water of the Ley is a trifle brackish, 
and when the water in it is low, as has been very much the case 
this year, and the sea tides are high, there is an extra soakage 
through of salt water, which is detrimental to the fish and makes 
them sulky about taking the bait — at least so say the fishermen. 
The bank was formed, and with it the Ley, I conjecture, in 
the year 1099, a.d., when there was a general upheaval of the 
South Devon coast of some 30 feet, as recorded in the Saxon 
Chronicles and evidenced by raised beaches, one of which was- 
exposed to view under Plymouth Hoe not many years ago when 
some excavations were being made there under my direction. 
The supply of fresh water to the Ley is given chiefly by a con- 
siderable stream entering the upper or northern end, and by a 
second of lesser size coming in at about the middle of the lake. 
Both of these streams abound with good-sized trout, though there 
are none in the Ley itself, for they would soon be devoured by 
the pike who greatly relish them. When there is an excess of 
water in the lake it is got rid of by an underground conduit at the 
lower end, but at ordinary times there is no passage to the sea. 
The water is divided into two unequal parts by a roadway 
and bridge, and the upper and smaller half is, during the greater 
part of the fishing season, covered with reeds growing some 12 or 
15 feet out of the water, and forming a dense jungle of co\-er for 
wild fowl and fish ; this cover also exists to a considerable extent 
in the lower lake. I was able this year, owing to the lowness of 
the water, to penetrate these reeds, and realize what a splendid 
cover they afforded, but one could not get in very far, the ground 
soon becoming moist. These reeds are cut each winter and sold 
by auction, fetching it is said £200, and are used principally for 
thatching and in partition walls instead of wooden laths. 
I suppose there is no place in England where so many pike 
and perch are caught as here, and besides these there are many 
roach, and eels, and other fish. 
Being a trout fisherman, I never took very kindly to the Ley 
fishing, however, I did go out several afternoons during the 
season, which lasts from April to October, in a boat. There is 
no need for one to know anything about fishing, one is sure to 
catch fish. The four boatmen, Eli, John, Coley and Robert^ 
