Page:The Evolution of British Cattle.djvu/39

 north of Cambridge. One remarkable fact is worth recording in relation to this skull. The peat-diggers, as their long trenches approached Reach Lode, always came upon a sort of bank, where the peat was harder and mixed with earthy-material. This indicated that there had been a fosse dug through the peat to the underlying marl and clay, and that the bank was the upcast from this fosse. It was in the direct line from Reach to Upware, starting from near the great quarries which may date from Roman times, and from the end of the Devil's Ditch, along which so many remains have been found, and pointing straight for the southern end of the Upware island, where also there are abundant traces of Roman occupation. All the Roman pottery from this part of the fenland which I have been able to trace to its exact locality, was found along the line of this raised bank."

Starting from this hint, McKenny Hughes went on to inquire into the kind of cattle most likely to have been brought into Britain by the Romans. They could not have been the native cattle of France, for, being of the same type, these could have brought about no change in the character of the cattle in Britain. They must have come either immediately or originally from beyond the Alps. Having eliminated Italian cattle of recent introduction to Italy, and considered the evidence from coins and similar