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| Conclusion The answer to the problem of digging basins in the fens "the sheer size and depth" of the broads initially seemed to lie in a simple choice: either conditions were so favourable that the pits wouldn't have been subject to continual flooding, or they were kept free of water mechanically. On those terms, if conditions weren't all that good, a pump or baling device must have been employed. It was only much later in their researches that Joyce Lambert and her colleagues became acquainted with the peculiar, impermeable properties of wet peat. This renders the choice partly invalid. With conditions no more favourable than today, and without using a pump or baling device, it would have been perfectly possible to dig down to the same depth as the broads but over a much smaller area. Excavations "the sheer size and depth" of the broads were created by joining together small, deep, adjacent pits, into one big one. |
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| "It is a capital mistake to theorise ahead of the evidence." A. Conan Doyle, "The Second Stain." |
| On the other hand, " . . . . . once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." A. Conan Doyle, "The Sign of Four." |