38 ON SOME ANCIENT LAKE REMAINS AT FELSTEAD, WITH
refilled its natural outlet would be by that road. The road has also
cut through 4 feet of the rainwash mentioned as occurring on the
northern slope of the valley, burying relics, etc., and has therefore
precluded the further formation of rainwash since this erosion com-
menced.
Another reason for supposing the final drainage of the lake to
have taken place long ago, is the accumulation of rainwash or brick-
earth inside the lake basin. This accumulation has completely
covered the lake mud, and obscures, except for the artificial section,
all the other deposits.
This is all the evidence known at present for the antiquity of the
lake. We have therefore, primarily, an accumulation of 8 feet of
rainwash at one place; an accumulation of compact lake mud (the
product of still water) exceeding 8 feet; and the accumulation
amounting to many feet and to hundreds of superficial yards resulting
from the normal overflow of the lake. Secondarily, there is the after
accumulation of rainwash in the lake basin and the amount of road
which has been lost by denudation.
Before passing on to notice the other lake remains of the neigh-
bourhood, it might be mentioned that the "Millands" seems to have
had the largest feeder and so has produced the greatest accumula-
tions in the rear of the dam ; and, thanks to the Railway Company,
the section here now shown is the finest. So compact is the lake
mud within the basin that the railway embankment has been allowed
to rest on it as a sufficient foundation.
We will now pass on to notice the other remains of a similar kind
in the neighbourhood. Half a mile west of Felstead village a strong
spring issues from the side of the hill. Like the "Millands" brook
it has cut a depression in the course of geological time. Across this
depression two dams have been thrown; the first is near the point
of issue of the stream, and the second is somewhat lower down the
hill. These dams, although long breached, once held back two
considerable ponds (lakes, as we shall continue to call them in the
technical sense). The overflow channel which can still be traced,
was carried off at a right angle towards another depression about 70
yards to the right of the pond, and has left there unmistakable allu-
vial traces. The bed of the lower pond has an accumulation of
shell-marl of over 5 feet, in part, at least, due to the lake. But as
other kindred accumulations occur in the locality, it is not safe to
attribute the whole of this to the lake's agency. It is, however,