Bideford and the Torridge Estuary
Many small streams fall into the Bristol Channel, among which is the Lyn, renowned for its beautiful scenery and its good trout-fishing.
A large proportion of the Celtic words in our language are found in the names of natural features, especially of hills and rivers. This is particularly well seen in Devonshire, where, as has been pointed out, the Saxons came as settlers rather than conquerors, adopting many of the names which they found already in use, and where an unusually large number of towns and villages have been called after the streams on which they stand.
The names Exe, Axe, and Okement, from the Celtic uisge; Avon, Aune, and Auney, from afon; Dart, from dwr; and Teign, from tain, are all derived from roots meaning "water." Other names are taken from descriptive adjectives, such as Wrey, from rea, rapid; Lyn, from lleven, smooth; and Tamar, Taw, and Tavy, from tam, spreading or still.
The lakes of Devonshire, as is the case in the majority of English counties, are little more than ponds. Cranmere Pool, in the great morass where many Devonshire rivers rise, lying in a dreary spot, as befits the reputed place of punishment of evil spirits, has shrunk of late years in consequence of much peat-cutting in its neighbourhood, and is now an insignificant pond, rarely more than seventy yards across, and in hot summers sometimes quite dry. Bradmere Pool and Classenwell Pool, the sites of old mine-workings, are beautiful little lakes, but they are only a few acres in extent. Burrator Reservoir has been made in order to supply water to Plymouth. The largest of these miniature lakes is Slapton Ley, or Lea, a long and narrow sheet of water, two and a quarter miles in length and measuring about 200 acres, separated from the sea, with which it was no doubt once connected, by a bank of fine shingle. The reeds of its north-eastern end, which are cut and sold for thatching, are the haunt of many water-birds; and the Ley is visited in winter by immense numbers of migratory ducks and waders.
[6. Geology.]
Three main points characterise the geological features of Devonshire; the simplicity of the system in the west, north-centre and south-west of the county; the comparative complexity and variety of the strata in the east and south; and, most remarkable of all, the extraordinary number of outcrops of igneous rock, from the great mass of Dartmoor granite, which has no parallel in England, to the hundreds of small dykes or elvans that are scattered chiefly over the southern region, although some occur to the north and east of Dartmoor.