THE PAST HISTORY OF THE FOREST OF ESSEX. 119
These early people would have been forced to settle on the'
naturally lightly wooded and easily tilled soils, which, in Essex,
only occurred on the three light soil regions to the centre,
north-west and south-east of the county. Both the thickness
of the forest growth and the heaviness of the soil would have
proved an obstacle to settlement in districts other than these
three areas of light soils with their scanty woodland covering.
It is, therefore, not unexpected that in these three districts the
Fig. 2. Prehistoric (Neolithic to Iron Age) Settlement Sites in Essex.
great majority of those finds denoting prehistoric settlement
are concentrated (Fig. 2). Of the remaining finds very few-
appear in the heavily wooded areas suggested in the four-fold
forest division, which may be recalled as being the western
London Clay and the Boulder Clay. Small clusters of sites do,
however, appear on the Boulder Clay as it approaches the
north-western chalky area. The most interesting feature of
this distribution of the prehistoric sites is that the great number
of those that occur beyond the light soil belts appear on the
eastern London Clay. This district has already been mentioned