218
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
by rabbit burrowing, but the lower 1.5 feet contained so much
"baked sand" that it was probably composed entirely of that
material as originally constructed.
Mound S.—As may be gathered from the section, this has
not been modified by modern ditching. It is also somewhat less
disturbed by rabbits.
Mound E.—I do not give a sectional drawing across this
mound, as I feel that this would suggest a sense of precision
which would scarcely be justified by the circumstances. It was
much disturbed by rabbits, and a good deal had been dug away
before I realised its possible significance.
Over a radius of some 6 or 8 feet from the centre there was
about 1 foot of the baked sand overlying the original surface
soil. For the next 4 to 6 feet the original surface soil appeared
to have been completely dug away and replaced by the baked
Fig. 3. Section across Mound S.
sand to a thickness of about 18 inches. Outside that again the
surface soil reappeared, and the baked sand trailed off to nothing
over it.
The upper part of the mound, overlying the baked sand, was
composed of mixed soil such as would be gathered up by shallow
digging on the site to-day.
One narrow trench was cut across the ditch, and it proved
to be identical in character with the others.
It looked as if the site might have been carefully prepared
before the lighting of the big fire which produced the baked sand,
but I would not attach too much importance to this unless similar
evidences can be identified elsewhere.
Mound B.—This marked the commencement of our opera-
tions. We started with a trench from the westerly ditch, straight