SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



sition of mud and sand and the building up 

 of vegetation. 



That subsidence is still going on, however, 

 is evident from the fact that parts of the 

 Broadlands are below the level of high tides, 

 protected from the ocean by only a narrow 

 strip of sand dunes. In places the sea is grad- 

 ually gaining on the sand, so that the ruined 

 church of Eccles, found by Lyell half buried 

 in the dunes in 1839, has since been entirely 

 destroyed by the waves, and it is feared that 

 the sea will finally conquer and flood the 

 sunken land. 



From these same Norfolk marshes nearly 

 three hundred years ago came to the Essex 

 marshes in the new world many of the ances- 

 tors of the present inhabitants. It is pleasant 

 to fancy that the love possessed by some of 

 us for salt marshes may be inherited from our 

 English forebears, who long years ago hunted 

 and fished in the marshes and tidal estuaries 

 of old Norfolk. 



One can see in the mind's eye the recession 

 of the glaciers, the bare gravelly hills and the 

 numerous streams coursing over the sandy 

 boulder-strewn plains high above the sea, 

 which was then many miles to the eastward; 



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