240 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Newport Church and about a third of a mile south from Uttles-
ford Bridge over a small tributary of the River Cam, the track-
way at once crosses the level, alluvial, grassy flat, about 150
yards wide, occupying the bottom of the valley of the Cam,
which here runs almost alongside the road, just within the
border of the Park. There is now no sign of its former course
across this flat, but it clearly crossed (forded) the river at a
point where the stream is divided into two by a tiny islet, which
once, perhaps, carried some sort of a bridge. On the eastern
edge of the flat, the side of the river-valley rises sharply, and
the track-way, leaving the level flat, ascends this slope, com-
mencing as a trough, V-shaped in section, having sides six to