Journal of Proceedings. cxiii
Othona by road to any other inhabited station, and, therefore, no doubt,
there was a ferry across to West Mersea.
Reference had been made in the programme of the meeting to the
curious " Bed-hills," or " Salting Mounds " which are so numerous about
the estuaries of the Essex rivers as far as the tide extends. The pro-
gramme continued:—"According to Mr. H. Stopes, F.G.S., after the
destruction of centuries, eighteen still exist between the Stroud and
Virley, a distance of six miles. They are said to occur also on the
Norfolk coast, and along the wide rivers in Suffolk, and in Kent. They
often cover as much as from 10 to 30 acres of ground, being from 2 to 41/2
feet deep, composed of reddish burnt clay, mixed with broken pottery of
the rudest type, wood-ashes and charcoal. It is worthy of remark that
they reach right down to the London Clay, showing either that the clay
at the time they were deposited was not capped with mud, or that the
men who made the mounds always first cleared down to the clay—no
small task, remembering the space they cover. The mounds are quite
distinct from the well-known 'Kjokkenmoddings' of Denmark and
Scotland. What are they ? and who made them ? "
Alluding to these mysterious mounds, Dr. Laver explained that a
quantity of pottery was found in them, but none of the vessels were
perfect, and the pottery was coarse, none of it having been on the wheel.
This showed that it must be of a very early date. It had been said that
these red hills were the remains of salt works, but he could not for a
moment believe that there could have been such numbers of salt works
all round the coast, or that they would have made such enormous
quantities of debris. The hills were quite red, being formed of burnt
clay. There was nothing in them to explain their origin in any way,
and there were no traditions connected with them, a fact indicating
their great antiquity. They were all on London Clay, or a very
stiff clay, and great quantities of animals' bones were found in
them, cut, broken, and sawed—bones of sheep, goats, and rabbits, and
great quantities of bones of domestic fowls. The rabbits' bones were
probably due to rabbits having burrowed in and died in their holes.
What these mounds were he could not attempt to say. If the Essex
Field Club would take the matter in hand, and have some careful
diggings made into them, something might turn up to explain what was
now a mystery.*
On Mersea there would be found a number of barrows, some of them
rather large. These had never been explored, but they were supposed to
be of Roman origin. This might be so, but Roman barrows were
not very plentiful throughout the country, and these afforded scope for
investigation.
* The best account of these mounds will be found in Mr. Stopes' paper " The
'Salting Mounds' of Essex" in the 'Essex Naturalist,' vol. i., pp. 96-105. A full
list of those known to exist in Essex is being prepared and will be published in due
course.—Ed. (1891).
h