O GEOLOGICAL NOTES 



pretty evenly, so that the stream must have been of nearly the 

 same depth everywhere. But where there were many bends the 

 gravel tended to become piled on one side. Thus, a few yards 

 westward of the Viking ship, the gravel was seen to be piled on 

 the more southerly side of the channel to within 3ft. of the top, 

 the opposite bank showing 



Loam . . . . . . . . 3ft. 



Peat, earth with mud, and here and there shell layers 5 to 6ft. 

 Gravel 



Again, fifty or sixty yards further westward the gravel was 

 heaped up against the more northerly side of the channel. 



South-west of the place where the Viking ship was found, 

 and a few yards eastward of the spot at which the channel made 

 a sharp bend to the south, the " steam navvy " cut away the 

 groimd so as to expose a long section ranging nearly north and 

 south and crossing the old channel nearly at right angles to its 

 course there. In Fig. 5 this section is shown for a distance of 



Fig. 5. New Reservoirs. 1. Surface Loam ; 2. Peat; 3. Gravel and Sand. 



The irregular dark patches are fragments of the Stems of trees and plants, 



with other vegetable matter. 



about 50 yards ; the spectator is looking eastward, and the dis- 

 used channel appears towards the southern end of the section. 

 Throughout there was gravel towards the base and loam at the 

 surface each retaining the same character throughout the section. 

 But the intermediate beds varied extremely. At the northern 

 end ot the section there was a comparatively thick bed of peat 

 formed of the remains of water and marsh plants which had 

 grown in situ. About 10 yards from the northern end it was 

 found, as shown in Fig. 5, that the peat bed had been eroded 

 away and that in its place were gravel and sand more irregular 

 in stratification than that towards the base of the section. And 

 in this gravel and sand' were irregular deposits of blackened 

 vegetable remains, from tree stems to a debris of twigs, leaves, 

 &c., which had been heaped confusedly together, just as they 



