26 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



a dull grey, so like the hue of the old weathered and 

 lichen-stained wood of the palings as to make him 

 almost invisible. It was an instance of protective 

 resemblance in the human species. He was standing 

 motionless, leaning on his stick, peering at me out 

 of his pale dim eyes as if astonished at the sight of a 

 stranger in that lonely place. 



But I love the solitariness on the side towards the 

 sea best, the green marsh extending to Holkham on 

 your left hand, once a salt flat inundated by the sea, 

 but long reclaimed by the making of that same green 

 bank I have mentioned — the causeway which con- 

 nects Wells with the beach. On the right side of this 

 bank is the estuary by which small ships may creep 

 up to the town at high tide, and the immense grey 

 saltings extending miles and miles away to Blakeney. 

 Between the flats and the sea are the sand-hills, rough 

 with grey marram grass; then the beach, and, if 

 the tide is up, the sea; but when the water is out, 

 you look across miles of smooth and ribbed sands, 

 with no life visible on its desolate expanse except a 

 troop of gulls resting in a long white line, and very 

 far out a few men and boys digging for bait in the 

 sand, looking no bigger than crows at that distance. 

 Beyond the line of white gulls and the widely scattered 

 and diminished human forms is the silvery-grey line 

 of the sea, with perhaps a sail or two faintly visible 

 on the horizon. 



What more could anyone desire ? — what could add 

 to the fascinations of such a retreat ? A wood ! Well, 

 we have that too, a dark pine wood growing on the 



