BIRCH GROVES OF EPPING FOREST. 
73 
distribution. They were described by the late Sir Joseph Prest- 
wich in 1890 as Westleton shingle, and more recently by a 
late President, W. Whitaker. They are composed approximately 
of :— 
1. Flint pebbles 5 °% 
2. White quartz pebbles 15% 
3. Sub-angular fragments of flint 20% 
4. Sub-angular fragments of chert 10% 
5. Pebbles of Lydian stone and ragstone 5% 4 
There are few or no birches where there is a considerable 
crater-like pocket in the clay filled with sandy gravel, for there 
water stagnates, as (1) in part at least of Rushey Plain, 300 
yards north of the King’s Oak Hotel, (2) in the portion of ground 
that is about 200 yards west of the Wake Arms, along theWaltham 
Road, and south of the keeper’s cottage, and (3) in part of the 
Forest between the converging roads east and west of Great 
Monk Wood. On one of these patches Sphagnum sp., Drosera 
rotundifolia, Erica tetralix and Lycopodium inundatum were 
until recently present, though not frequent. 
The sand and gravel areas, when not in such hollows, are 
well drained naturally, although considerable obstruction is 
caused by luxuriant vegetation at the issue of springs and 
for some distance below them. A scheme for draining such 
swampy places was commenced in the late seventies of the 
19th century. It consisted in digging deep straight ditches 
through the boggy land, but owing to the strenuous efforts of 
the Club, aided by the sympathetic help of influential Conserva¬ 
tors, the artificial drainage was allowed to become obsolete and 
no permanent lowering of the water-table of the plateau took 
place. The water is known to have maintained an almost 
constant level, six feet from the surface, for a long series of years 
in wells near the 300 feet contour line. 
There is an interesting paragraph in Water Supply of 
Essex. “ At the High Beach outlier, there are many springs 
on the northern side of the Common, sometimes with a rich 
growth of bog-moss {Sphagnum ), and of other marsh plants. 
On the east, in the nursery southward of the King’s Oak Inn, 
I saw, more lately, a spring with a bog garden.” This delightful 
miniature graphically illustrates one of the beauties that forest 
4 Quart. Jonrn. Geol. Soc., 1S90, pp. 8|, 181. 
