ALLUVIAL COVERING. 35 



find in Domesday a number of places in that quarter taking their name 

 from meres, now unknown* Even at present, the waters of the Der- 

 went, with those of the Rye and other tributary streams, frequently 

 overflow the low grounds of the same valley during part of the win- 

 ter; and they did so to a greater extent, before the formation of the 

 >New Cut from the Derwent at Everley to Scalby beck, which, like a 

 safety valve, serves to carry off the superfluous waters. In like man- 

 ner, the peat bog on the banks of the Esk above Whitby bridge, which 

 is probably continued in the flat ground at Ruswarp, may have been 

 formed at some distant era, when the mouth of the river was obstructed 

 by rocks or banks, not now existing, which completely excluded ther 

 tide, and made the Avaters of the river to accumulate above it, so as 

 to form a small lake on the site of the present harbour. 



The morass at Hartlepool is evidently a continuation of the slake, 

 the bottom of which contains large trees and other vegetable remains, 

 with the antlers of deers and other animal substances.t The morass 

 now exposed to the waves has been the bottom of another slake, or of 

 another division of the same slake; from whence, at a remote period, 

 the sea has been excluded by a bari-ier, now demolished, which per- 

 mitted the accumulation of fresh Avater on this spot, and the conse- 

 quent formation of a morass. 



That the morasses on the Holderness shore have been the bottoms 

 of meres, may be inferred even from the names of the places where they 

 occur. Sandley-wje>T, into which the sea appears to have broken at 

 no very distant period, speaks for itself; and the names Skipsm, 

 Withermm, and Kilnse«, indicate that a mere has existed at each of 

 these places, as there still is at Hormm. The termination sea (or sey, 

 as it is also spelt,) in these names, is not our modern word denotin"- 



* As Odiilfeswiaj-f, Cliiluesmares, AscliiIesma/-«, Maxudesmare*, Clii8oges?ner5. 

 See Bawdwen's Domesday, p. 1]. 



t Sir Cutlibert Sharp's History of Hartlepool, p, 3. 



