152
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
The forest provided shelter from the weather, material for
weapons and food (fruit, eggs and the flesh of animals). The
variety of fertile soils has always been valuable. There is good
stiff loam for corn, clay for root crops and heavy clay for pasture.
The southward tilt of the land ensures maximum heat from
the sun. This has been used for the glasshouse culture of cu-
cumbers and tomatoes on exposed ground, and for orchards
where there is more shelter from the wind.
There is, too, a natural wealth of building material—timber,
twigs and clay—giving rise to several architectural types. The
primitive form was seen until recent times in the charcoal
burner's hut. Later, "wattle and daub," and "half-timbered"
houses were evolved and combinations of timber and clay
bricks with thatch and clay tiles.
(II.) The Lea has been large enough for navigation from
the earliest times until the present day. The oldest evidences
are the British Dug-out. Canoe1 (15 feet long, now in the
British Museum and dated at 500 B.C.) ; the Viking Ship,2
of about 850 A.D., and the tradition of the stranding of the
Danish fleet at Waltham.3
The streams supported many fish. Domesday Book contains
abundant references to the value of the fisheries. Salmon were
recorded in the Lea as late as 1833.4 The presence of pure
water gave rise to the malting of barley at Ware, the bleaching
of silk at West Ham and Waltham, and the habit of drinking
the water unfiltered even at the beginning of the 19th century.
Good water in abundance provided a source of supply for London.
The first big effort was the building of the New River Conduit
in 1613. From 1850 onwards reservoirs have been constructed
as the demand increased, culminating in the King George
Reservoir, 11/2 mile long, opened in 1913.
(III.) The last group of advantages includes suitable sites
for settlements and aids to communication. These are best
dealt with in chronological order.
(a.) It is probable that swampy land between the channels
and disused backwaters was the site of the very earliest habita-
tions. The discovery of the dug-out canoe (already mentioned)
1 Essex Naturalist, xii., 1901, p. 11.
2 Essex Naturalist, xii., 1901, p. 13.
3 Essex Naturalist, vii., 1893, p. 97.
4 Essex Naturalist, Vitt. 1894, p. 186 ; xi., 1899, p. 143.