Note 206 — Chapter XIII

A mile to the east of Upware we can see how mighty a task those men of old undertook who cut these lodes through the primæval jungle. For here is that Wicken Fen, which we have already spoken of,[206] where a square mile of that jungle is preserved in its primæval condition, and where (in all but the old bird life) the fauna and flora of the old Fenland may still be studied in their old environment; where the peat is still spongy under your foot, and the tall crests of the reeds rise high above your head. To dig out masses of that spongy peat, to cut through miles of those tall reeds would be no light business even with our own modern means of excavation. What must it have been to the rude implements of the ancients?