155 



DAGENHAM BREACH. 



By WALTER CROUCH, I'.Z.S. {rke-PresuL-ni). 

 [Rt-ad at Field .^fcetin^, 23rd July, lSg2.\ 



T T ig almost impossible to realise what was the original course and 

 extent of the great Estuary which has at last dwindled down 

 intp the w-aters which now form the River Thames. 



In remote ages was deposited from an ancient sea some 600 feet 

 qf chalk. On this, from a shallower sea, or broad estuary, the deposit 



River Wall and I^ake, Dagenham. 

 By Edmund M. Wijitfieris, after a sketch by Dr. Smiles. 



of the London Clay was formed, until in historic times we find the 

 present river ; flowing eastward from Thames Head,^ near Cirencester, 

 some 160 miles to Teddington (? Tide-end-ton), and thence, as a 

 tidal river, down to the German Ocean. The Basin, or depression, 

 through which it flows, drains "a ve:y large tract, extending over 

 6,160 square miles, in fact, more than one-seventh of all England."^ 



I This is but one of the many sources, which meet together .it Lcchlacle, Gloucestershire. 

 -• Hii.vley : " Physiography," iSSi. p. i6. 



