THE GEOLOGIST. 
for the compiler of a communication like tlie present, I shall not 
occupy time by entering into any detail respecting them. 
It is time now to enter upon the agricultural portion of my 
subject, and as the progression of agriculture will necessarily 
and in a great measure be shown whilst describing the changes 
in the physical features of the district, during its improvements 
by the industry of man, I will endeavour to blend this division 
of my subject with the agricultural; and indeed the present 
surface was not deposited till after agriculture had made some 
progress. 
Of the agricultural knowledge and practice of the ancient 
Britons in possession of this district (the Iceni, Coritani, and 
Celti) nothing is on record, indeed it is probable that their food 
was not of the productions from tillage of the ground; for all 
early historians agree in stating that the aborigines subsisted 
chiefly on the fruits of the chace. Csesar says, " many of the 
inland people sow no corn, but live upon milk and flesh ; 
they are clothed with skins.^' Thomyson, in his History of 
Boston writes, " the higher parts of this fenny country, from the 
richness of the soil, were well adapted for agricultural purposes, 
but we have authority for supposing that agriculture was little 
known in this island till about 150 years before the Christian 
era/^ 
The state of the Great Level as portrayed in page 76, existed 
on the arrival of the Romans; at that period nature alone held 
dominion there, man was but a denizen in the waste, the ox, the 
stag, and the boar ranged at large ; the sagacious and provident 
beaver constructed his garner in its precincts. 
"With the arrival of the Romans in the Level, commenced the 
labors of man, for agricultural pursuits were unknown in Britain 
at that period except on the southern portion of the island. To 
follow the aborigines into their fastnesses in the fens, and re- 
duce them to subjection, the invaders immediately began to 
clear the land, embank, and construct causeways; ^^The emperor 
