166
NOTE ON A SMALL SHARK.
(fresh-water) had excavated a small channel; that this stream
was accustomed to carry boats was evident, because in its own
mud and not in the peat itself, the boat was found. The surface
of the peat was the shore of that day, and the existence of the
stream must have been prolonged to the later part of that period
which was occupied in the accumulation of the tree's growth
and their debris. Therefore, the stream was apparently in full
run about 1700 years ago, and the boat apparently belongs to
that age. Since the boat was lost, the deposit of tidal mud had
almost obliterated any sign of the channel"
Mr. Spurrell records in his paper on "Early Sites and
Embankments on the Margins of the Thames Estuary"
(Archeological Journal, vol. xlii., p. 302, note) that near a spot in
the Erith Marshes by Belvedere Station where moor-logs of the
old forest might then (1885) be seen projecting into the ditch, a
"dug-out" boat was found. It was low down in the peat,
which rises to zero O.D. and was cut through in making a ditch,
the ends of the boat being left in either bank. "From out of
this boat a polished flint axe and a very beautiful flint scraper
were obtained. Another polished axe of large size was dredged
out of the same peat bed in the river off Prices' works close by."
The Albert Docks boat was secured for the British Museum
(by Mr. Whitaker's intervention) where, Mr. C. H. Read
informs us, it is still preserved. As the Museum now has the
two "dug-outs" (one from the Lea and the other from the
Thames) it is much to be desired that careful descriptions and a
comparison of them should be published. Meanwhile our readers
will doubtless welcome the above records of "dug-out" boats
found in the district.
NOTE ON A SMALL SHARK (? Galeus vulgaris)
SEEN IN BRIGHTLINGSEA HARBOUR.
By H. C. SORBY, LL.D., F R.S., F.LS., &c.
When walking on the deck of my yacht, lying in Bright-
lingsea Harbour on August 23rd, 1901, at about 4.15 p.m., I
heard a loud splashing, and, on looking to see what was the
cause, I saw a small shark, about ten yards off, with its tail
curled round and flapping it on the surface of the water. It
then straightened itself out and swam towards the yacht, but, at