Skeleton lately found at the Tilbury Docks, Essex. 147
34.55 ft. and in the sand, 1.77 ft. below its upper surface.
Above the sand was about 10 inches of "sand and decayed
wood," material evidently brought down in the channel of the
stream. Still ascending we get "mud and peat" 3-24 ft.,
and "mud" 1.76 ft. Above this mud was the lower of the
two peat beds seen in the excavations on May 17th, its
thickness being 3.58 ft., and the depth of its base from the
surface 27.02 ft.
Appendix.
Notes on the New Docks at Lynn.
Mr. W. Whitaker having been good enough to show me the
excavations for the above Docks, together with some of the
remains found while making them, some months ago, it oc-
curred to me that some remarks about them might form a useful
supplement to those I have made about Tilbury. In order to
get the latest information about the Lynn Docks, I wrote to
Mr. Whitaker a few days ago, and from his reply (dated
February 19th, 1884) I take the following details :—"The
section at Lynn Docks consists of sand and shingle for about
twenty to thirty feet, the top part being somewhat loamy.
This sand and shingle is everywhere underlain by bluish-grey
boulder clay. The commonest contents of the shingle were
marine shells, bits of hard fossiliferous Kimeridge Clay,
bones, fragments of pottery of various ages, and shoe-soles.
Of upper-leathers only one attenuated representative was
found towards the close of the work. Most of the shoe-soles
had been worn ; they have marks of stitching. I have seen
120 at least. One bone borer, one bone flute, one celt, and
one beautiful arrow-head have been found. The Docks are
now full of water."
The pipe, piece of pottery, and shoe-soles exhibited were
found by Mr. Whitaker and myself during a visit I made to
him in November, 1882. They were all in sand, fully 12 ft.
below the surface. The oyster-spat and remains of some
small polyzoan conspicuous on the pipe show that it was
some time in the channel of the river before being covered
up. The river flowed over the site of the New Docks before
its new channel was made twenty years ago.