96 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
it ciim grano salis, it evidences that great progress Lad been 
made in the cultivation of the fens; at any rate_, that large 
portions had not been permitted to relapse into the state 
in which they were found by the Romans. Still it does not 
appear that the Normans^ at an early period of their domi- 
nions^ originated any important works of drainage^ but rather 
contented themselves with repairing the banks raised by the 
Romans, satisfied with confining the waters within their former 
channels; for^ in the timxC of Heniy I., about fifty years after 
the death of William the Conqueror, " there was not any other 
access into this isle (Ely) than by ships or boats ; this bishop 
(Harvans) therefore, being desirous to have a causey through the 
fen (as it should seem), but doubting whether the monks would 
think the works feasible at all, or, if so, with any indifi"crent 
charge, so contrived the business, that it was set upon without 
any fear of either, and became accomplished accordingly. * ^ * 
"Whereupon setting in hand therewith he began to measure the 
distance from Soham to Ely, and to cut down the reeds which 
stood in his way, as also to make bridges over the rivers ; and 
so went on in raising of the said causey, which he perfected in a 
very short time to the wonder of all men that then saw it ; that 
causey being still called Soham causey, and, by an ancient 
pleading it appeareth that before the year 1181 (27th. Henry 
2nd.) there was neither any habitation, nor ground that yielded 
profit within that part of Wiggenhale from Busterdesdale, unto 
the south side of the same town, except the monastary of Crab- 
house, some lands belonging thereto all being then waste, and 
in the nature of a fen. In 1256 (40th. Henry III.) the fens 
between Ely and Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, had been drained, 
producing corn and hay ; by whom drained it is not known. 
Improvements progressed as the energies of man resisted the 
devastating power of the elements; but at times the wind and 
the waves were toomight}-, and prevailed over his most strenuous 
efforts and ingenious operations to resist them ; for m c find re- 
