XX11 TOPOGRAPHICAL REMARKS. 



the usual channel, to convey the water brought down by 

 floods, and prevent it from overflowing the adjoining country. 

 This space, called the "wash," is often of considerable ex- 

 tent, (that between the great cuts, known as the Bedford 

 Rivers, varies from half to three quarters of a mile in 

 width,) it is constantly liable to be overflowed, and usually 

 forms boggy pasture abounding in the plants which inhabit 

 such places. 



The Cam is formed by two, or perhaps we should say 

 three, small rivers or brooks. The two larger of these rise 

 in the chalk district and unite with one another and with 

 the third stream within a very few miles of Cambridge. 

 After leaving the chalk, which one of them does very near to 

 its source, and the other at only a short distance above their 

 junction, these streams are continuously bounded by a nar- 

 row belt of low marshy land until the joint-river enters the 

 Fens at a short distance below Cambridge. From thence 

 downwards it has the usual character of the fen-rivers. The 

 former of these streams rises in a very powerful spring at 

 Ashwell in Hertfordshire, and its whole course is nearly 

 parallel to the range of chalk-hills which divide this county 

 from those of Hertford and Essex ; the second stream rises 

 near Quendon in Essex, and passes rapidly over a gravelly 

 and chalky soil until after entering our county. It then 

 acquires the swampy borders and sluggish character common 

 to our streams. The names of these streams are much con- 

 fused. Either is called the Cam or Rhe, according to fancy ; 

 but, if any weight is to be given to the Celtic meaning of 

 those names, the first described is the Cam (crooked or 

 meandering), the latter the Rhe (swift). The third stream 

 contributing to the formation of the Cam (or Graunt river, 



