56
ON THE ALLUVIAL AND OTHER RECENT
DEPOSITS AT FELSTEAD, ESSEX.
By J. FRENCH.
These deposits are of two kinds, one the black and moory soil of
the uplands, and the other the homogeneous clay of the valleys, and
as they are unlike in composition, so they are unlike in origin.
The first deposit, that of the sides of the hills, is caused by the
outwelling of springs, and is formed of the debris of the rank vege-
tation to which the springs gave rise, associated with carbonate of
lime and generally with sand. As a rule they are unfossiliferous, their
porosity ensuring the destruction of organisms. At least two species
of molluscs, Succinea putris and Helix hispida, have long occupied
these areas in great numbers, but their remains are not generally to
be found, neither is it possible to recognise the forms of the sedges
which anciently grew there. An exception occurs in one instance
which is particularly worthy of note, because from this place has
been obtained several specimens of the shell Cyclostoma elegans, a
snail not now living in the locality, and not, or rarely, occurring in the
fossil state elsewhere at Felstead.1 Associated with that are numerous
other shell remains, nearly all of species now living here. This parti-
cular patch of alluvium is at the top of a field called Bushey Leys,
on the Bury farm.2
These upland deposits are developed northward in many fields
between Felstead and Stebbing; extensively on the farm called
"Moors"; near Bannister Green; near Littley Park, and near
Camsix. Modern agriculture does not allow of an oozing spring,
and so it is that the areas are all now dry, but the subterranean spring
is always traceable. The best idea of their poverty in organic
remains can be obtained by an examination of the section exposed
by the railway in the Mill-lands meadow.
We will now turn to the clay of the river valleys, the only other
surviving record here of the work of the seasons which have passed
over since Glacial times.
1 In vol. ii. of our "Proceedings'' will be found some information as to the occurrence, or
rather the non-occurrence, in a recent state, of Cyclostoma elegans in Essex. Mr. W. H. Dalton
says (loc. cit. page II) : "I have found it, and so has Mr. Christy, abundantly in very modern
alluvium and spring-peat, but never living, and I fear it is extinct. ... I have found Cyclos-
toma in peaty alluvium at Rivenhall (Witham) and Wormingford (Nayland, Suffolk); and Mr.
Rowe, of Felstead, sent me a very recent-looking specimen from surface-soil there, but I could
never hear of it living in Essex.'' See also Mr. Christy's remarks on page 21 of same volume.—
Ed.
2 A further examination of this deposit, which appears in patches elsewhere, is likely to be
productive of interesting results, especially as regards the molluscan fauna.