Lakes are accumulations of water in hollows on the earth's surface. When they are drained by rivers their waters are fresh, but when they have no outlet they are salty, e.g. the Dead Sea, Sea of Aral, etc.
Lakes may owe their origin to:
Barriers across a river valley hold back the water, which forms a lake. Such barriers may be of various types. (a) Sometimes artificial barriers of concrete and masonry are built across a valley so as to make a lake which can act as a reservoir for the water-supply of a large city, e.g. LakeVyrnwy for Liverpool. (b) A glacier may deposit a mass of morainic material across a valley. In this way the lakes of the Lake District and many of the Scottish lakes were formed. (c) A landslip may occur. A lake was formed thus in the Upper GangesValley in 1892. Two years later the landslip dam gave way, and disastrous floods occurred downstream. (d) Oxbow lakes are formed from the meanders of rivers. The deposition of silt at the two ends of the 'oxbow' closes the channel between the main river and its old loop. Many oxbow lakes border the River Murray in Australia, and the lower Mississippi. (e) Sometimes a lavastream may flow across a valley and cause the formation of a lake, e.g. LakeTaupo in New Zealand. (f) Sometimes large estuaries are partially filled with silt. In the portions not so filled are large shallow lagoons. Such lagoons are found in deltaic areas. The NorfolkBroads are portions of an old river estuary. (g) When a silt-laden stream enters a lake its speed is checked and a barrier or delta is built across the lake splitting it into two portions. This has happened in the Lake District, where Keswick stands in the alluvial flats between Lakes Bassenthwaite and Derwentwater, and in Switzerland, where Interlaken is situated in the flats between Lakes Thun and Brienz. (h) The action of the sea often causes an accumulation of sand and pebbles which cuts off a lagoon of sea water. The Fleet in Dorset is such a lagoon, cut off from the sea by Chesil Bank, a long pebble beach which joins Portland Island to the mainland.
The nehrungs of East Prussia are sand-spits which enclose the shallow salt-water lagoons or halls, such as Kurische Haff. Earth movements cause lakeformation when subsidence occurs. This is most easily seen in rift valleys. Examples of riftvalley lakes are the Dead Sea, Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika in Africa, and LakeTorrens in Australia. These are all long, narrow, and very deep lakes.
In Cheshire, the removal of underground beds of salt has caused subsidence resulting in the 'meres' of the Weaver Valley. The 'folding' of the earth across the line of a river valley may partially block a river and help to form a lake. The study of a good physical map will reveal the connection between mountain building and the formation of LakeGeneva and LakeConstance in Switzerland. Where there are large areas of depressed lowland wide and shallow lakes are formed in the lowest part of the depression, for example the Sea of Aral in Asiatic Russia, LakeBalaton in Hungary, and LakeEyre in Australia. Ice sheets and valley glaciers may scoop out hollows to form 'rock basins'. Mountain tarns and corrie lakes in North Wales and Scotland have been formed in this way. Water also accumulates in the hollows of unevenly- distributed glacial drift. Such are the lakes of East Prussia, and also those of the Cheshire-Shropshire borders near Ellesmere. Subsidence of the land surface and consequent lakeformation may be directly related to volcanic action. Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland is a shallow lake formed by subsidence of this type. Lakes are often formed by the accumulation of water in the craters of extinct volcanoes, for example the Laachersee in the Eifel region of Germany. Research Lakes
Marquis or marques is the second order in the peerage of England, ranking below a duke and above an earl. The title was originally applied to certain officers appointed to defend the marches or borders of Wales. The first marques proper was Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who was created Marques of Dublin by Richard II in 1386. In 1397 Richard made John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, Marques of Dorset. The oldest existing marquisate is that of Winchester, dating from Edward VI in 1551. The eldest son of a marquis is generally by courtesy an earl, and the younger sons and the daughters are styled lords and ladies. His wife is a marchioness. Marquis is often the courtesy title of the eldest son of a duke during his father's lifetime. Research Marquis
Dimorphodon was a dinosaur of the family Dimorphodontidae, of the early Jurrasic period. Dimorphodon was the earliest known pterosaur of the Jurrasic period, and was about one metre long with a wing-span of anout 140 cm. Only a few remains of Dimorphodon have been found, these were in Dorset in England and a single partial specimen in Gloucestershire, England. The nature of the teeth, Dimorphodon had four or five large front teeth followed by a row of smaller teeth in the upper jaw and four or five large teeth followed by on each side by 30 or 40 small pointed teeth, indicate that Dimorphodon probably fed on fish or similar marine animals. The legs were long, and equipped with powerful claws. Research Dimorphodon
The Dorset Horn is a British breed of domestic sheep renowned for their unique ability to lamb naturally at any time of the year. The Dorset Horn evolved from cross breeding of Spanish sheep with the native English stock during the 16th century producing the Portland, and the modern breed evolved in 1707 from crossing the Potland with the Southdown to produce the Dorset Horn. The
Dorset Horn is bred for meat and wool, producing lean meat with a low proportion of bone in fast growing lambs and high quality fleeces. The Dorset Horn is a large sheep, white in colour with a tan-coloured face. The horns are long, curving downward in a circular pattern and then upwards, creating almost a full circle. In the USA Polled or hornless strains of the Dorset Horn were developed by North Carolina State University in the early 1950's and in the USA these have gradually been replacing the horned varieties. Research Dorset Horn
The Wessex Saddleback is a British breed of domestic pig originally from Dorset and traditionally bred on farms through Hampshire for bacon. The Wessex Saddleback is black in colour with a white band around the shoulders that extends down the front legs and feet. The ears are lopped forwards. A hardy animal, the Wessex Saddleback is now a rare breed but is still farmed at Manor Farm in Hampshire. Research Wessex Saddleback
Alfred Stevens was an English artist and designer. He was born in 1818 at Blandford, Dorset and died in 1875. He studied painting in Italy, but while there turned to sculpture and about 1841 entered Thorwaldsen's studio. He returned to England in 1843 and from 1856 to 1857 received the commission for his great work on Wellington's monument in St Paul's Cathedral, which he never completed. Research Alfred Stevens
Anthony Ashley Cooper (Earl of Shaftesbury) was an English colonist. He was born in 1621 and died in 1683. He was one of the nine proprietors who received a grant of Carolina in 1663, extending from the Virginiafrontier to the river St Mathias in Florida. He was prominent in the management of the colony, and secured for it the constitution drafted by Locke in 1667. It established a territorial aristocracy with the proprietors at the head, granting religious toleration. Shaftesbury was a famous party-leader in England, and was LordChancellor from 1672 to 1673.
Anthony Ashley Cooper (the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury) was an English philanthropist. He was born in 1801 and died in 1885. He was member of parliament for Woodstock from 1826 to 1830, for Dorchester from 1830 to 1831, for Dorset from 1831 to 1846, for Bath from 1847 to 1851 and a lord of the Admiralty from 1834 to 1845 and a commissioner in lunacy from 1831 to 1885, affecting a complete reform of the Lunacy Acts. He also got the Factory acts amended and extended; obtaining the passing of an act in 1842 abolishing apprenticeships in collieries and mines and excluding women, and boys under thirteen, from employment underground. Research Anthony Cooper
The Dwr-trigs were a British tribe occupying the area now called Dorset. Their name translates as water dwellers, and through the Saxons was translated into dor-aetta, which evolved into the modern Dorset and gave rise to the modern name of the area. Research Dwr-Trigs
Abbreviations
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