The Rivers Author(s): W. Cunningham Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 35, No. 6 (Jun., 1910), pp. 700-703 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1777240 Accessed: 27-04-2016 16:33 UTC

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This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:33:56 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 700 THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE RIVERS.

Splendidly strong, well-woven hammocks are made bly the Guainanos and Tarianos upon looms one or more of which are found in their malocas. The batten of the warp and woof is always a stick of polished pira-miranga, a dark red, intensely hard, heavy wood highly prized by the Indians. The Huitotos, Carijonas, and Cubbeos employ no loom, nor are the fibres woven, the longitudinal strings merely tied at regular intervals with cross-meshes, by which the initiated eye knows at once what tribe it signifies; for the Huitotos space the distance that the thumb and little finger outstretclhed subtend; the Carijona meshes are at a palm's distance apart, including thumb; and the Cubbeos is measured by four fingers. The tipiti is the Indian cane-mill, or trapiche, and is mlade lby two stout posts planted firllmly in the ground, with perforated lborings to support the extremities of two smlooth rollers in close apposition, each made to rotate from either end by detachable levers. The cane is fed through this crusher and reduced to bagasse, the juice being caught in earthern and wooden vessels. The pilon and mano are huge wooden mortars and pestles, a hollow tree-trunk and a heavy lpounder hewn from hard wood with a cylindrical head employed for crushing maize. These, with the matafrio previously mentioned, complete the cmude mechanical devices in common usage with these people for ages past. March 12 I reached the Ipanore caxoeira, and two weeks later we passed down river to San Joaquin, and shooting the Tamandua caxoeira, were hurled into the whirling waters of the Rio Negro April 1, reaching Santa Izabel, the head of steam navigation, four days afterward.

THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE RIVERS.- By the Ven. W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D., Archdeacon of Ely.

[ABSTRACT.]

HAVWNG been called upon lately to write a short economic history of Cambridgeshire, I found that the story of half the country was very closely involved with that of the river system of the Fens. This had be n interfered with from time to time by the digging of channels and erection of banks; but these great works do not always tell their own story: some channels were made for purposes of drainage, and some for navigation; some banks were meant fbr protection against flood, and some to be used as roads. The dates and the objects of most of the works are very uncertain, and the problem as to the course of the river before the artificial changes began is one of great difficulty. I make no pretence of having solved it, but I venture to put forward some pieces of evidence which ought to be carefully weighed by any one who takes up the question seriously, from the hydrographical side, and not as I have done, merely incidentally, and from the historical side. The face of the country was entirely changed by the systematic drainage which was undertaken by Cornelius Vermnyden and carried through during the seventeenth

* lRescarch Department, February 22, 1910.

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:33:56 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE RIVERS. 701 century by the Bedford family, and the map represents the country as it was in 1605, before this attempt was begun. I. The historical evidence, as gathered from records and traditions, has been collected by Dugdale, and printed in his 'History of Imbanking;' he gives good 7/DY/,, THE. WASH s / ,

New channels opened...... Old channels silted up. The boundaries of the Isle of Ely are shown by the rivers and hatching.

MAP I.-CHANGES IN THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE RIVERS AFTER THE STOPPAGE OF THE OUTFALL AT WISBECH IN 1236. reason for believing that during the preceding three or four hundred years, the Ouse and the Cam had been so far diverted that, whereas the water had formerly been discharged at Wisbech, it was in his day carried to the sea at Lynn. It is probable that this change began in 1236, when there was a great storm at Wisbech, and the No. VI.-JUNE, 1910.] 3 B

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:33:56 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 702 THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE RIVERS. outfall was blocked. As a consequence, it seems, a channel was formed from Outwell to Denver, and another cut from to Priestshouses, thus carrying the whole of the water to Lynn. Navigation which involved the use of these

THE WASH

...... Old river silted up...... - New waterways. MAP II.-CAMBRIDGESHIRE RIVERS IN ROMAN TIMES. channels was firmly established by 1302. It also appears that at the time, when the outfall at Wisbech was blocked up, the Nene had tried to force its way against the current of the Ouse, from Benwick to Earith ;* and this seems to have resulted in the silting up of that channel before 1605.

* Badeslade, 'Navigation of the Port of Lynn,' p. 6.

This content downloaded from 130.113.111.210 on Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:33:56 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE CAMBRIDGESHIRE RIVERS- DISCUSSION. 703

Map I. shows the new channels which enabled the waters of the Nene, Ouse, and Cam to be discharged at Lynn, and indicates the old channels towards Wisbech which have silted up. II. It may perhaps be taken for granted that the English settlers who formed agricultural villages would accept physical obstacles to communnication as natural' boundaries; they could not work their common fields and pasture their stock conveniently on both sides of a river; where a channel cuts across such a parish, there is reason to believe it is artificial. The present course of the Cam and Ouse cuts across the parishes of Waterbeach, Wicken, , Ely, and Littleport, and we may infer that these channels are later than the English settlements. The old name of Looder or Lorder Delfe, preserved in the map of the Fens published by Hondius in 1632, suggests a much more recent origin. But the further question arises, what was the previous course of the river ? It has been traced along the boundaries between Ely and by Mr. Cole Ambrose; and the quantity of remains he has dug up render it certain that the Romans had a quay at Stuntney, about three-quarters of a mile from the present course of the river. This channel has long since been completely silted up. Supposing this process to have begun in Roman times, it appears possible that the water of the Cam forced its way from Upware round to Earith, and joined the Ouse on its way to Benwick, and that the original course of the water in the West river was from east to west. Mr. Arthur Bull, of Cottenham, has found much evidence which goes to show that this was at one time the course of the river at . It is confirmed by the old description of the extent of the Isle of Ely (A.D. 974), and by the boundaries of the rights of warren assigned to Cambridge Castle in 1274. The critical point ill this connection is Wash Lode, which seems to be entirely forgotten, but which can be identified from some very curious maps in the parish chest at Stretham. Among the same papers there is an interesting award of 1298, as to the pasture rights of the people of the parishes which would be affected when the thirteenth-century channels were cut through them. III. We are thus brought back to Roman times, and to a remarkable channel from Clayhithe to Cottenham, known as the Car dyke. This would serve as a link in a system of internal waterways by which the best corn-growing land of Cambridgeshire was connected with Peterborough and Lincoln. The distribution of Roman remains in Cambridgeshire seems to show that they relied on communica- tions by water; and the royal rights of the Saxon kings over the waterways * correspond to those they claimed over the great roads. The hypothesis I have put forward as to the course of the rivers may be of service, if it helps to focus atten- tion on the crucial points--the date and causes of the silting up of the Cam at Stuntney, and of the silting up of the Ouse from Earith to Benwick. I have been content to accept the sections of the country made by the eighteenth-century surveyors, but of course the levels should be re-investigated. On this point I would direct attention to the hydrographical observations of ( ?) William Hayward in the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum (Harl. 5011 f. 21). Dugdale made use of this, but omitted many interesting details as to the feeders of the Cam, their direction and the quantity of water they contained. I am well aware that the hypothesis I have put forward bristles with difficulties, and I will only say that. the only one of these difficulties which I have tried to face--as to how King Cnut rowed to Ely, if there was no river there-does not appear to me insuperable.

Dr. STRAHAN: This has been a most interesting account of the fenland rivers. 'That they have frequently changed their courses is obvious; indeed, rivers in an

* ' Domesday Book,' I., 298 b. 1. also 'Laws of King Edward the Confessor.' 3 B 2

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