138 PILE-DWELLING SITE AT SKITT'S HILL, BRAINTREE.
The accompanying view (Fig. 1, Pl. xxvi.) is taken looking
to the S.E., down the course that has been excavated, and shows
the ridges that are left between successive years' work, the
excavated spaces between being filled with water. The partition
on which the man is standing is that which divides the portion
of the bed under consideration from that previously excavated.
This view also helps one to realise the appearance of the original
river before its bed became silted up. The present stream, only
FIG. 3.—PLAN OF THE PORTION OF THE RELIC-BED, SKITT'S HILL,
excavated Oct., 1900.
a few feet wide, runs between the willows seen in the mid-
distance, and from the position of the spectator is some 70 feet
to the left.
On ascertaining that the bottom of the clay had not been
reached at the depth of 10 feet, I obtained permission to have a
hole dug below this level to find the old river base. This revealed
a very different state of things from what had been supposed, the
bottom being found at a depth of 17 feet from the surface, or
seven feet below the bottom of the relic-bed. As the hole was dug