the ogre is past, and the commotion caused by it has subsided, all is bustle and animation on the river: some vessels immediately prepare to resume their voyage to Gainsbrough, while others get all things in readiness against the reflux of the stream, in order to avail themselves of deep water for their passage to the Humber. Then comes the steam packet from Hull, on its daily voyage to Gainsbrough, passengers are landed or embarked; and if the wind be favourable as the tide continues to flow, brigs, schooners, sea sloops, and keels pass in rapid succession, so that on a fine summer's morning or evening, at which time, from six to nine o'clock, the spring tides in this part of the river always flow, the sight is truly animating and delightful. I never met with any stranger who, on first seeing it, did not express such feelings in a very high degree. I have endeavoured to give those who have not seen it some idea of the scene which I have attempted to describe in the engraving annexed.

Of late years the spring tides, and the ogres which accompany them, have declined considerably in heighth and strength. This may be caused in some measure, during the summer and autumn, by the great number of very large warping drains which at that season of the year are in active operation: but I think that they are influenced in a much greater degree by that change which has taken place in the channels through which the tide flows up the Trent from the Humber. The deposit of alluvial soil which, from time immemorial, has formed an island at the mouth of the river, has now become joined to the main land; and consequently the water in the Humber being confined to one channel, instead of two, does not flow up the Trent to the same extent as formerly. As these changes are continually progressive my engraving may perhaps represent to the next generation a sight which they will never have the opportunity to behold.

Before cultivation had made any progress in this part of the kingdom, the Trent most probably almost lost itself in that low marshy country which, after it had passed the hills at Alkborough, extends to a considerable distance on both sides of its banks. Through this extensive tract it would flow, as we see the rivers of newly discovered countries do now, in a number of streams. The

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The fertility of the soil deposited by the daily tides on the banks, or forming small islands amongst these several water-courses, would induce the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, by means of staiths and embankments, to reclaim the land thus formed, and by degrees to confine the waters of the river into one channel. The earliest notice which we have of any such undertaking is the issue of commissions, in the reign of Edwd. III," to view and repair those banks and ditches as had been made for that purpose, which were then grown to some decay*;" from the making of Mare Dyke Staith below Amcoats, in the same reign, by the Abbot of Selby; and from the grant in Mowbray's Deed of trees and roots for this purpose, "to repair the river of Trent, when cause of repairing is, and to make them newt." If at this period the banks and fore-shores of the Trent needed repair, they must of course not only have been erected some time, but must already have acquired considerable extent, and been of much importance to the country, otherwise it is not likely that they could have ingrossed so large a share of the public attention. As all that part of the country which is west of Trent became, immediately after the Conquest, the undivided property of one great Norman Baron, it is most probable thatthese improvements commenced subsequent to that period. One thing is quite certain, the present channel of the Trent has been formed since the destruction of the great forest by the Romans; for near Butterwick the roots of the trees as they grew are visible at low water, and in cleaning out the Drain Head at Ferry, near where the water falls into the Trent, I saw the roots of a large fir tree excavated from the spot on which it grew, which was two feet below the present channel of the river at low water mark, and fifteen feet below high water. The question then is, where was the channel of the Trent when that tree grew? Most certainly not where it is now. About two miles from this spot, on the east side of the present channel, in a low flat of ground, is a large irregular shaped piece of water called "Ferry Flash;" this we might probably conclude was the remains of what had been at some remote period an ancient channel of the Trent, were it not from the

the entire absence of warp, and the moor which in every part forms the bottom of the pool. But I think it is easy to point out the course of the river at no great distance to the eastward. A deep bed of warp near a place called Duke's Farm, in the parish of Laughton, gives certain proof that there has some time or other been an ancient channel near that spot; a small rising ground of strong clay* then turned it to the north-west, and in the present village of East Ferry, it seems to have pursued a devious course in several streams, until it united again near the large staith which is now maintained by his Grace the Archbishop of York: for near this staith the Trent, as it now flows, does not divide the parishes of Owston and Scotton, as is the case every where else; on the contrary, in the village of East Ferry, one house with perhaps two acres of land is in the parish of Owston, the next house with five acres in the parish of Scotton, then another small portion of land in the parish of Owston, Scotton then again intervenes, and then Owston again puts in its claim to a more extensive piece of land in the direction of Wildsworth, which is in the parish of Laughton.

This certainly indicates that these small parcels of ground, now belonging to the adjoining parishes, have formerly been separate islets, which have been claimed by each place as they happened to be occupied or cultivated by their respective inhabitants. Another though a smaller piece of water in the town of West Butterwick, called "the Fleet Hole,+" is also said to be the remains of an ancient channel of the Trent; and within the memory of the last generation Amcoats Hook was a body of warp which, continually increasing with the daily tides in what was formerly a wide part of the river, was at length reclaimed and embanked. The navigable channel then ran on both sides of this alluvial deposit, and thus formed an island; it now runs only

* Near this place, and about a mile from East Ferry, near this warp, was found a canoe, cut from one tree of a very large size. It was forty feet long, four feet broad, and three feet deep. Some human bones were found in it.

+ The word Fleet means an estuary or arm of the sea,-also a creek or inlet of water:-thus we have Adlingfleet, Ravensfleet, Yokefleet. When the current of the river changed its course at any particular point, there a creek, or inlet, or fleet would remain.

only on the east, but the old western channel is still very visible, and may be easily traced through the whole of its course. I shall describe this change more particularly in the history of the Township of Amcoats. Many other remains of ancient and different channels might no doubt have been traced, had not the improvements caused by warping altered the whole face of the commons on both sides, except in the Township of East Ferry, where nothing has been done.

But this theory of the Trent having changed its course, either at Ferry or any other place, will not afford a satisfactory answer to the question proposed,When that tree grew on the surface of the land which is now the bottom of the drain, and below the level of the river at low water mark, where was the channel of the Trent? for all that flat of ground extending towards the east, which is now called East Ferry Pasture, and along one side of which I have endeavoured to trace its course, exhibits the same marks of an old decaying forest, and is at this time full of trees and the roots of trees at a small depth from the surface. When these trees grew this ground could not have been subject to any overflowings of the tides, nor even stagnation of the fresh waters, for timber trees will not grow nor thrive where water for the most part stands, nor in moor, which in course of time accumulates in such moist places. Shall we suppose then, with Richardson, when endeavouring to account for a somewhat similar appearance, of trees having grown on land now inundated by the sea, that some earthquake has altered the face of the

country?

* The subterraneous trees in this common were first discovered in the dry summer of 1826. Wherever there was a tree beneath the surface its form and shape were exactly marked by the herbage being more withered than in other places. White tells us, in his History of Selborne, "that these trees may be discovered in the bogs on a winter's morning by the hoar frost which lay longer over the space where they were concealed than on the surrounding morass." Both these appearances may easily be accounted for. During the very dry weather the wood interrupted the moisture from ascending, and which the moorish soil absorbing would, in other places where there was no interruption, convey it to nourish the herbage above; while in the other case the timber prevented the warmth of the earth, which philosophers tell us has so much to do in promoting a thaw, from rising to the surface. Thus we find that the hoar frost will be no longer where there are drains, or wood pipes for conveying water, or on tiles, or thatch, or the tops of walls. See Hall's Humastics, p. 360. Might not this be made use of for discovering many hidden and curious relics of antiquity?

country*? or shall we coincide in opinion with those who are inclined to explain this alteration which seems to have taken place, between the level of the water and the surface of the ground, by less violent means? They argue that the rivers which flow into the Humber, bringing down with their freshes vast quantities of alluvial soil, accumulating in that great estuary, have impeded the outfal of the fresh waters, and raised the bed of the river, while at the same time the embanking of the stream, and its being confined to one deep uninterrupted channel, has caused a greater flow of water to take place during the daily tides than was the case when these ancient forests were standing. Thus the level of the water was considerably raised, and the adjoining grounds being deprived of their ancient drainage, the waters which fell from the heavens, as well as those which flowed down the rivers, were left to stagnate upon them. This opinion is much strengthened by the great depth of the former channel of the river Idle below the present surface of the country. In some places wells have been sunk to the depth of seven yards without penetrating through the warp; so that when the river Idle flowed

* In many instances trees and stumps are found standing on their roots, generally in marshy places above or very little below the actual level of the sea. They have not been transported by currents, or rivers; but, though standing in their native soil, we cannot suppose the level at which they are found to be the same as that on which they grew, as it would have been impossible for any of these trees to vegetate so near the sea, and below the common level of its waters. We cannot conceive that the surface of the ocean has been lower than it now is; we have numerous phenomena to make us believe the contrary. We must therefore conclude that the forest here described grew on a level high enough to permit its vegetation, and that the force, whatever it was, which destroyed it, lowered the level of the ground where it stood.

"There is a force of subsidence, particularly in soft ground, which being a natural consequence of gravity, slowly though perpetually operating, has its actions sometimes quickened and rendered sudden by extraneous causes, for instance by earthquakes. Donati, in his Natural History of the Adriatic, has marked, seemingly with great accuracy, the effect of this subsidence at Venice, and other places on the coast of Dalmatia. In England Borlace has given, in the Philos. Trans. vol. 48, page 62, a curious observation of a subsidence of at least sixteen feet in the ground between Sampson and Theseau in the Island of Scilly. The soft and low ground between the towns of Thorne and Crowle in Yorkshire, a space of many miles, has so much subsided in latter times, that some old men affirm that whereas they could before see little but the steeple of Goole, they can now sce the church-yard wall." Philos. Trans. vol. 12, page 80.