101 RIVERS. 



burnt down. Roman coins also have been found with them (see 

 De la Pryme, Phil. Trans. 1701). Skeletons of deer occur in 

 the peat. 



A singular specimen was sent from Thome to the Yorkshire 

 Museum in 1831, the cranium, jaws and teeth of a deer con- 

 verted into leather ; a circumstance easily explained by the dis- 

 solution of the earthy part of the bone by sulphuric acid (com- 

 mon in peat), and the action of the tannin of the peat on the 

 residual gelatine. 



At Hatfield (Heathfield), Edwin, the first Christian king of 

 Northumbria, was slain with his son Offrid in 633, by Penda and 

 Ceadwalla. 



Reinforced by the great river Trent, Ouse acquires the higher 

 dignity of an arm of the sea, and assumes the name of Humber. 

 As an arm of the sea we shall treat of it hereafter, and now pro- 

 ceed to the only remaining affluent of importance on its northern 

 banks, viz. the river Hull. 



THE HULL. 



The HULL is the river of Holderness, a great natural district 

 of extensive marshes and silt lands, ramified among low hills of 

 gravel, sand and clay, materials drifted from the northern and 

 north-western parts of England, and enclosing some rocks de- 

 rived from Scotland and Norway, or more distant regions. In 

 hollows of these masses occur small lacustrine deposits, with 

 bones of elk, stag, boar, &c., while in them and in the drift, and 

 in the flinty covering of the chalk, elephants' bones sometimes 

 occur. This country has much planted, but no natural wood; yet 

 in the lacustrine deposits and in the ramified peaty valleys, oak, 

 yew and fir occur abundantly, as in Hatfield Chace and Thorne 

 Waste; and they are found sometimes far below the level of tide, 

 the land being drained by machinery. 



The Hull, springing with the clear trout-streams of Driffield 

 (Deira-feld), the seat of Saxon power in Holderness (Holl-deira- 

 ness), and Kilham, flows in marshy ground among gravelly hills 



