TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 45 
Bear, Wolf, Wild Boar, Beaver, Roe-buck, Red-deer, and the long-faced and straight- 
horned gigantic Bos. The first two species are rare; the last five are found in con- 
siderable abundance. To this list might be added the bones of many species still 
flourishing in the immediate neighbourhood. In the overlying marshes are occa- 
sionally found many organic remains of living species and many curious remains of 
ancient workmanship; but their description came not within the objects of the 
communication. 
The author exbibited a map of the Bedford Level for the purpose of explaining 
some of the remarkable changes in the drainage of country during the last seven hun- 
dred years. The older historical facts were chiefly derived from the descriptions and 
charts of Dugdale and Badeslade, and they are briefly enumerated in the following 
appendix to the paper. 
APPENDIX. 
Changes in the River Drainage of the Bedford Level, produced by the silting up of 
the old water-courses, and the consequent accumulation of Turf-bog and Marsh Lands, 
&c. 
The parts of the great level immediately bordering on the sea, from the mouth of 
the Lynn river to the northern extremity of the Wash of Lincolnshire, chiefly consist 
of marsh lands gained from the sea, partly by artificial embankments (some of very 
ancient date), and partly by the natural encroachments of the increasing delta. But 
as under such conditions the outfall of the several rivers was liable to silt up, and the 
rivers themselves to shift their channels, it followed that many of the lower districts 
in the interior of the great level must have been liable to continued inundations from 
back-water. The consequence was, the formation of extensive tracts of fen-land and 
turf-bog through all the lower levels in the interior of the country. The following facts 
are chiefly derived from Dugdale, ‘On the History of Imbanking and Drayninge,’ 
and from Badeslade, ‘On the Navigation of King’s- Lynn and of Cambridge,’ and are 
given in this place for the purpose of showing how much the whole surface of a 
delta may be changed, by alluvial accumulations, in course of a few hundred years. 
In the early periods within the reach of authentic records (which go back more than 
600 years, no notice being here taken of the old embankments made by the Romans), 
the drainage of the great level was effected in the following manner :— 
1. By the channel of the Witham, which had then nearly the same course which 
it has at the present time. 
2. By the Welland river, which, after descending by Stamford, Crowland and 
Spalding, united with the waters of the Glen in the estuary north of Holland fen. 
3. By the Nene, which after passing Wansford and Peterborough, descended by 
Whittlesea-meer, Ugg-meer and Ramsey-meer to Benwick, at which place it was 
joined by the Old West-water, one of the branches of the Great Ouse*. From Ben- 
wick it flowed on the north side of March and Doddington to Upwell, where it was 
joined by the Welney river, then the principal channel of the Great Ouse; and from 
Upwell the united waters proceeded directly to Wisbeach, anciently called Ousebeach, 
and fell into the estuary. 
4. By the Great Ouse, which, after passing Huntingdon and St. Ives, descended 
to Erith (a village at the south-west end of the old and new Bedford rivers), where 
it divided into two channels. One of them, called the Old West-water, ran to Ben- 
wick, as before stated, and there united with the waters of the Nene. The other 
channel, now called the Old Ouse (sometimes erroneously marked as the Old West- 
water), descended by Cottenham fen, and was joined by the Cam a few miles above 
Ely. The Old Ouse, after passing Ely, was joined by the Mildenhall river, and it 
then passed, by the way of Littleport and Welney, to Upwell, where, as before stated, 
it joined the waters of the Nene, and so descended to the sea at Wisbeach. 
5. By the Little Ouse (once a very inconsiderable river), which (after passing 
Brandon and being joined by some small tributary streams from the chalk hills of 
* The Old West-water was given off by the Ouse at Erith (near the south-west end of the 
old and new Bedford rivers), and ran to Benwick, not far from Ramsey-meer. It was filled 
up and had almost entirely disappeared so early as 1618, as is stated in the old sutveys, and 
it is never traced on any modern maps. The term Old West-water cannot therefore be cor« 
rectly applied to the old course of the Ouse from Erith down Cottenham fen to Ely. 
