ON THE LEA VALLEY. II 



Then, the section shown in Fig^. 5 illustrates the way in 

 which sections in river deposits may show fossil remains of very 

 different ages at the same depth below the surface and only a 

 few feet apart from each other. They may be also in the same 

 kind of material. For a human relic or mammalian bone found 

 at the top of the gravel underlying the peat at the northern end 

 of the section might have been deposited many centuries earlier 

 than some similar object, at the same depth from the surface, 

 and also in the gravel, but found midway between the end of the 

 peat and the channel. The object under the peat might have 

 been deposited there in pre- Roman times; that twenty yards or 

 less southward might belong to the eighteenth century or later. 

 For the changes in the position of the old channel, which have 

 caused the destruction of the peat and its replacement by sand 

 and gravel containing irregular seams of vegetable matter, might 

 have occurred at any subsequent time. 



Fig. 8. Dug-out Boat found in the Walthamstow Reservoir Excaviitions, on 



trolly for removal. Drawn by Mr. H. A. Cole. For drawing of the boat 



in situ, see Frontispiece to the present volume. 



I have already mentioned the discovery of the old vessel, 

 generally supposed to be a Viking ship, near the old channel. 

 But some distance to the south-west, in the excavations for the 

 same reservoir, a boat of much more ancient character was 

 found. This was an ancient British "Dug-out" canoe, of the 

 kind so common in ancient lake dwellings. Mr. W. Traill, 

 one of the engineers superintending the excavations, was 

 fortunately able to get it out almost entire, and it is now carefully 

 preserved. From an account which Mr. Traill has given 

 of the canoe in The Reliquavy and Illiisti'ated Avchaologist for 

 January, 1901, I take the following details : — 



