THE "SALTING MOUNDS" OF ESSEX. 97
point, between Bradwell and St. Osyth. In the angle between them
lies Mersea Island, an oval ridge with a channel at the back, receiving
the brooklets of Langenhoe and Peldon, but probably eroded in the
first instance by the Colne, before that river cut through the east-
ward extension of the ridge to St. Osyth Beacon Hill. At that time
the saltings and fresh marshes of Geeton, Fingringhoe, and Lan-
genhoe probably formed, in time of flood, an extensive lake, whilst
the marshes between West Mersea and Tollesbury constituted a still
larger sheet of water. The mud resulting from the waste of the clay
cliffs of Walton, Frinton, and Clacton filled the bay of what is now
the mouth of the Colne, and then passed southward across the
estuary of the joint rivers to line the shore, down to the Thames,
with a broad belt of treacherous ooze, well nigh impassable.
On the inland borders of the saltings behind Mersea, and west-
ward to Tollesbury Marsh, occur numerous mounds and levelled
patches of burnt earth. They lie, as a rule, just above the average
high-water mark, or its level, where the saltings have been inclosed,
as, after conversion into marshes, the saltings always shrink, chiefly
from loss of water, to much below their original level. Many thou-
sands of acres of saltings along the coasts of Essex are only occa-
sionally covered by exceptionally high tides, but they are wetted to
varying heights, according to the state of the tides, every twelve
hours. The water readily penetrates, for the saltings are intersected
in every direction by creeks, or cracks, which serve as conduits to
admit the water in flood, and drain it away during ebb.
The mounds consist of a reddish, porous earth, like disintegrated
brick, mixed, in some places freely, with broken pottery of the
rudest type, wood charcoal or cinders, and clinkers. There has
been, as far as I can learn, no scientific notice taken of them,
except a brief note which I sent to the Archaeological Institute in
1879,1 remarks at the meetings of the Colchester Natural History
Society, and at the Archaeological Society's meeting at Colchester,
when Lord Talbot de Malahide and Bishop Claughton took con-
siderable interest in the communication it was my privilege to make.
I also read a short paper about the mounds at the Swansea meeting
of the British Association in 1880, which was followed by a dis-
cussion. It is very strange that they have hitherto failed to excite
the attention of antiquaries, for it is just possible that they may be
1 Stopes, H. "The Salting Mounds of Essex." Archaeological Journal, vol. xxxvi., pp. 369-
372 (1879).
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