102 DAVIS: THE LAKK-DWELLINGS IX EAST YORKSHIRE. 
These once characteristic semi-stagnant expanses of water have all 
been drained, and with the exception of Hornsea Mere, which is 
below the sea-level, the sites they occupied are only indicated by the 
names which the places still retain. It is with difficulty that the 
richly-cultivated and fertile plains of the Holderness of to-day can be 
conceived as a country full of swamps, bogs and lakes, almost im- 
penetrable either on foot or by other means. The shghtly higher 
ground was for the most part densely wooded, and much vegetation 
covered the whole of the country. It extended far out over the area 
now occupied by the North Sea . The rapidity with which the land 
has been washed away may be inferred from the fact that during some 
years as much as fifty feet have gone during one winter ; and since 
the days of the Stuarts the sites of villages and churches which were 
considerably within the coast line, are now far out at sea. 
There rolls the deep where grew the tree. 
***** 
The hills are shadows, and they flow 
From form to form, and nothirg stands; 
They melt like mist, the solid lands, 
Like clouds they shape themselves and go. 
The woods and higher ground were infested with wolves ; and the 
wild boar grovelled in the slimy margin of the pools, rooting up 
succulent morsels from the luxuriant vegetation, thriving in the 
damp and vapour-laden atmosphere. The red-deer and the horse 
roamed in herds over the district, making incursions from the higher 
ground to the westward, and numerous small animals lurked in the 
recesses of the forest. It is probable that at this time the beaver 
had formed its wonderful habitation in the more rapid streams of the 
district, and unconsciously competed with its human neighbours in 
the stability and comfort of its water-protected home. Birds were 
common, the wild goose being so abundant that even to this day the 
higher ground in the vicinity of one of the lake-dwellings retains the 
name of Goose Island, though it is long since it was an island and 
the wild goose is a mm avis now. 
It was on the edge of one of these semi-stagnant, reed-grown 
meres at Ulrome that Mr. Thomas Boynton discovered the remains of 
an ancient lake-dwelling. The edge of the lake was towards the east. 
