40
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
What were the uses to which these lakes were applied? Un-
doubtedly chiefly as fish reservoirs, and perhaps for the protection
and decoy of wild fowl. There seems to be no evidence at present
of lake habitations; but in the "Millands" basin at Felstead there
has been an artificial deposit of Boulder Clay which has been
already described as overlying peat and being itself overlaid with
lake mud. This clay was evidently deposited for some purpose,
and may have sustained an erection on piles.
One other question arising is as to who the people were who
made and used these lakes? There seems to be but little doubt
that an antiquity equal or anterior to the Roman occupation may
be claimed for them. Yet, as Mr. Kenworth points out, it is not
consonant with the Roman genius as we know it, to build earth-
works in retired situations and there spend their days in the peaceful
pursuits of fowling and fishing. Such a course better agrees with
earlier settlers, and is quite consistent with all we know of their
habits.
Further excavations, which, however, are not probable in this
neighbourhood, might shed more light upon the subject. It would
be interesting to know where other similar dams are to be found in
Essex, or indeed in a wider field.
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
The Marten (Martes sylvatica) in Essex.—Mr. J. E. Harting thus sums
up the records of the Marten in Essex in the December number of the "Zoologist"
(3rd ser., vol. xv., p. 456) :—"Daniel, in his 'Rural Sports' (vol. i., p. 503), states
that a farmer in the parish of Terling, in Essex, was famous for taming this
animal, and seldom had less than two. He adds that some years since (1801)
one used to run tame about the kitchen of the 'Baldfaced Stag' on Epping Forest.
About 1822 one was shot out of a crow's nest in the Waltham Woods, near
Chelmsford, by Mr. Thomas Gopsill, of Broomfield, near Chelmsford (H. M.
Wallis, 'Zoologist,' 1879, p. 264). On February nth, 1881, being at Colchester,
Ambrose, the bird-stuffer there, informed me that the last Marten he had seen in
Essex was killed in the autumn of 1845 at Walton, near Colchester, by a keeper,
who sold it to him for half-a-crown. He skinned and preserved it, and disposed
of it to Mr. Maberley, of Colchester, for ten shillings. On November 27th, 1880,
being in Epping Forest, near Loughton, I learnt from T. Luffman, one of the
keepers, that in March or April, 1853, while he was acting as keeper to Mr.
Maitland, he trapped a Marten in a covert near Loughton. After keeping the
carcase for some days, till it was nearly spoilt, he took it to Epping, where it was
purchased by the late Mr. Doubleday. At a sale of Natural History specimens