178 



CHAPTER II 



V. Appledore, pr. Bideford (N. Devon), 29-30. V. 54.— Concerning this place, 

 I obtained extremely valuable information from the late Mr. Vernon C. Boyle, of 

 Westward Ho!, a well-known expert of the old North Devon trade {vide above, 

 p. 160 a.f.). He told me that on leaving the estuaries of the rivers Torridge (Bide- 

 ford area) and Taw (Barnstaple area), sailing-vessels took on board ballast mainly 

 from the sandridge situated on the confluence of the two rivers' mouth, straight 

 N. of Appledore, and generally known as "The Crow". The ballast thus consisted 

 of sand, which was either directly heaved up with shovels at low tide or brought 

 alongside in small barges. The normal rise and fall of tide here is 20 feet. 



a— "The Crow" (map, fig. 22; figs. 23, 25). The collecting was carried out on the 

 very tip of the peninsula, the only part accessible at any tide. The soil is pure sand, 

 in the upper tidal zone partly mixed with gravel. Higher up a pronounced chain 

 of low sand-dunes bound by Ammophila and, on their inside, a depressed vegeta- 

 tion, continuous only in spots: 



Euphorbia paralias 

 E. portlandica 

 Ononis repens repens 

 Senecio jacobaea 



Ammophila arenaria 

 Anagallis arvensis 

 Cirsium arvense 

 Cynoglossum officinale 

 Er odium cicutarium 



Collected animals: 



