150 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
speakers, and Prof. Boulger and Dr. Murie were warmly thanked for their
addresses and for the trouble they had taken during the day to render the
meeting pleasant and profitable.
The archaic cart was again requisitioned by some of the party back to
Benfleet, while others (more wisely) walked, and collected insects and plants
by the way.
VISIT TO THE EXCAVATIONS AT THE EAST
LONDON WATER COMPANY'S NEW RESERVOIRS,
TOTTENHAM AND WALTHAMSTOW.
Saturday, June 29TH, 1901.
At the kind invitation of Mr. Charles W. Sharrock, the Superintendent
of Messrs S. Pearson and Son's works at the new Storage Reservoirs, a very
interesting meeting was held on this afternoon, and its announcement attracted
a large assembly of members and friends The party was met at the gates of
the works in "Ferryboat Lane" by Mr. Sharrock and Mr. Traill, his assist-
ant, and by Mr Marsh, the Assistant Engineer of the Water Company. Col,
Bryan, the Chief Engineer, was unavoidably, and at the last moment, pre-
vented from being present.
A locomotive, with three trucks fitted with seats, took the party over the
bed of the new reservoirs, and at various points Mr. Sharrock explained the
engineering aspect of the works, the diversion of the old river Lea from its
channel and the formation of the new water-way. He mentioned incidentally
that there was plenty of water in the river, and if the new reservoirs did not
prove adequate, it was proposed to construct others higher up the Lea valley.
Owing to Mr. Sharrock's excellent arrangements the sections exposed through-
out the extensive works were inspected without fatigue.
Mr. T. V. Holmes, F.G.S., demonstrated the points of geological
interest—the sections of the Lea alluvium, the shell-marl and peat, and re-
marked, in the first place, on the unique interest of the sections exposed in
making the new reservoirs. Probably to the geologist the most interest-
ing sections were those of new railways. Railway cuttings, however,
in soft strata, were liable to be speedily spoiled as geological evidence,
both by the ordinary action of the weather, and by the practice of
sloping them. Still they were there, though latent, and liable to be re-dis-
closed whenever a widening of the line became necessary. But sections such
as those before them were such as railways never revealed ; for railways
never made cuttings through marshes, though they often crossed them by
means of embankments or viaducts. Then the sections made during the
formation of those reservoirs would not be simply sloped, but would be swept
out of existence, the completion of the reservoir implying their annihilation.
As to the nature of the beds displayed there and their mode of formation;
they were simply the work of the river Lea. Rivers had a way of perpetually
tending to erode their banks on one side and to deposit material on the other,
the bank on which erosion was taking place at any given spot, being the bank