40 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



What were the uses to which these lakes were applied ? Un- 

 doubtedly chiefly as fish reservoirs, and perhaps for the protection 

 and decoy of wild fowl. There seems to be no evidence at present 

 of lake habitations ; but in the "Millands" basin at Felstead there 

 has been an artificial deposit of Boulder Clay which has been 

 already described as overlying peat and being itself overlaid with 

 lake mud. This clay was evidently deposited for some purpose, 

 and may have sustained an erection on piles. 



One other question arising is as to who the people were who 

 made and used these lakes ? There seems to be but little doubt 

 that an antiquity equal or anterior to the Roman occupation may 

 be claimed for them. Yet, as Mr. Kenworth points out, it is not 

 consonant with the Roman genius as we know it, to build earth- 

 works in retired situations and there spend their days in the peaceful 

 pursuits of fowling and fishing. Such a course better agrees with 

 earlier settlers, and is quite consistent with all we know of their 

 habits. 



Further excavations, which, however, are not probable in this 

 neighbourhood, might shed more light upon the subject. It would 

 be interesting to know where other similar dams are to be found in 

 Essex, or indeed in a wider field. 



NOTES— ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



The Marten (Martes sylvatica) in Essex. — Mr. J. E. llarting thus sums 

 up the records of the Marten in Essex in the December number of the " Zoologist" 

 (3rd sen, vol. XV., p. 456) : — " Daniel, in his ' Rural Sports ' (vol. i., p. 503), states 

 that a farmer in the parish of Terling, in Essex, was famous for taming this 

 animal, and seldom had less than two. He adds that some years since (1801) 

 one used to run tame about the kitchen of the ' Baldfaced Stag' on Epping Forest. 

 About 1822 one was shot out of a crow's nest in the Waltham Woods, near 

 Chelmsford, by Mr. Thomas Gopsill, of Broomfield, near Chelmsford (H. M. 

 Wallis, 'Zoologist,' 1879, p. 264). On February lith, 1881, being at Colchester, 

 Ambrose, the bird-stuffer there, informed me that the last Marten he had seen in 

 Essex was killed in the autumn of 1845 at Walton, near Colchester, by a keeper, 

 who sold it to him for half-a-crown. He skinned and preserved it, and disposed 

 of it to Mr. Maberley, of Colchester, for ten shillings. On November 27th, 1880, 

 being in Epping Forest, near Loughton, I learnt from T. Luffman, one of the 

 keepers, that in March or April, 1853, while he was acting as keeper to Mr. 

 MaitUnd, he trapped a Marten in a covert near Loughton. After keeping the 

 carcase for some da3's, till it was nearly spoilt, he took it to Epping, where it was 

 purchased by the late Mr. Doubledaj'. At a sale of Natural Historj' specimens 



