XVII.
Coatham, in Yorkshire. Mr. Atkinson has seen both
series, and maintains their identity. His paper is
published in the "Archaeological Journal," vol. 37
(1880), pages 196-199, and is entitled "Some Further
Notes on the Salting Mounds of Essex."
This view of Mr. Atkinson's, like many other
theories, must be taken with a grain of salt, or, indeed,
as many grains as a whole summer's evaporation would
yield in the position in which some of these supposed
salt-works were placed if the rivers then were as fresh
as at the present time, for a point worthy of notice is
the existence of these mounds far up freshwater
rivers, where the water is never more than brackish
and often fresh, by no means the position suitable for
salinae in ordinary circumstances ; and the absence of
mounds on the open seaboard is singular.
Another curious fact in connection with these
mounds is that they invariably extend quite down to
the London Clay, which clearly shows that the clay,
at the time they were formed, was not covered by
alluvium, or that the men who made them always
cleared the site first down to the clay. When we
remember the acreage they cover this would be no
slight task, and it adds to the difficulty of accounting
for them, for if they are only the sites of salinae the
object of excavation where no foundation was wanted
a little obscure in these days.
At any rate, the rude character of the asso-
ciated pottery, the absence of any trace of
metal, and the downward extension of the cal-
cined masses to the London clay argue a high
antiquity, higher than that of the surrounding allu-
vium, four or five feet in depth, perhaps higher than
the change of course of the river above referred to.
"Vast changes have taken place in the outline, and
perhaps in the drainage system, of Essex within the
post-glacial epoch (using that term as including the
present age). The occurrence, at Clacton-on-Sea, of
lacustrine beds overlaid by estuarine deposits now 30
feet above sea level, and of submerged forests of more
recent date than these estuarine beds, points to im-
portant oscillations at a date at least posterior to the
advent of man in Britain, even if we do not accept
the alleged proofs of human workmanship in Glacial
and Pliocene deposits.
On the outer edge of the Bradwell mud-flats south
of the Blackwater, there are seen after storms the
remains of ancient brick buildings, exposed at low
water of spring-tides. The deposition of mud on that
coast is slowly advancing the saltings eastward, and in
course of time these ruins may be once more within
the area of dry land—a distant event, it is true, but
one that will be more rapidly brought about if ever
the old proposal to bring thither the sewage of London