A SUPPOSED NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT. I25 



the Skitts Hill Brick Works, in which the words " Clay Pit " 

 appear twice. In this field the nature of the material, the shape 

 of the ground, and the appearance ot London Clay at intervals 

 along the slope, suggested that its surfac e was mainly occupied 

 by terraces of old river deposits. Then, crossing Duggers' 

 Lane, we came to the excavations in the alluvium — the most 

 recent of the river-deposits. To a distance of some twenty or 

 thirty yards from the river Brain the alluvium on its western 

 bank had been carted away to a depth of 6 or 7 feet, the original 

 surface of the flat being shown by its level on the eastern bank 

 of the stream. The alluvial flat of the Brain hereabouts is of no 

 great breadth, and there are no signs of the former existence of a 

 lake ; but primitive " Moated Granges " may often have been con- 

 structed on an alluvial marsh with the aid of piles, and by the 

 formation of an additional short channel, which would allow the 

 habitations to be surrounded by water. 



Of Mr. Kenworthy's discoveries in this alluvial flat there is 

 no need to say anything here. It may, however, be useful to 

 add, for the sake of comparison, the following brief account of 

 some excavations in the alluvium of the river Cam, between 

 Audley End and Saffron Walden, quoted in the Geological Suyvey 

 Memoir on Sheet 47 (pp. 72--73). The original account was given 

 by the late G. E. Roberts, in the Anthvopologicai Review, vol ii., 

 pp. 41-43 (1864J. 



" In the course of railway works between Audley End and Saffron 

 Walden, it became necessary to divert the course of the river Cam into a part 

 of the meadow land bounding the stream, which was traditionally known as 

 ' the old river bed.' A cutting, about 20 feet deep, through this, necessitated 

 for the foundation of a wide and large culvert to give passage to the river 

 through the railway embankment, disclosed the following section : — 



Soil . . . . . . . . .^. . . I foot. 



. 11 ,■ j Clay . . . . . . . . 3 feet. 



i Peat. Bones at the bottom 12 ,, 



Gravel 



Near the bottom of this "peat," and at a depth from the surface of 16 ft., 

 an astonishing quantity of Mammalian bones were found. . . Out of the 



excavation— an area of not more than 20 ft. by 60 ft. -two cartloads of " large 

 bones " were taken away, 



The peat is, more properly, a blackish clay, with numerous fragments of 

 wood and a few logs of considerable size bedded in it. It is everywhere full 

 of fluviatile shells, of species common in the district, and contains many 

 naturally-formed chips and flakes of flint and a few rolled pebbles. 



