Xvi INTRODUCTION, 



in the south-eastern corner, with its small fields, 

 clustering homesteads, rich meadows, and well timbered 

 hedge-rows. 



THE BROAD DISTRICT. 



To enter more fully, however, into the physical 

 peculiarities of these different sections, we shall com- 

 mence with the Broad District, both as possessing the 

 greatest amount of interest for the naturalist and sports- 

 man, and presenting, notwithstanding the results of 

 agricultural enterprise, certain local conditions peculiar 

 to the north-eastern portions of Norfolk and Suffolk. It 

 is only necessary, as Mr. Lubbock remarks, to draw an 

 imaginary triangle on the map from Lowestoft to 

 Norwich, and thence in a north-easterly direction to the 

 sea at Happisburgh, to include the whole of that " great 

 alluvial flat, once the bed of the Garienis ostium/* 

 whose sluggish waters give rise to those shallow lakes 

 or lagoons, here locally termed Broads. It is, more- 

 over, worthy of notice that the wide extent of coast-line 

 which would thus form the base of the triangle, 

 presents (with the exception of a low range of cliffs 

 between Lowestoft and Yarmouth) the same level 

 features as the surrounding country. The flat sandy 

 shore, raised here and there by beds of " shingle," 

 is backed only by such natural barriers against the 

 influx of the tides, as are presented by the undulations 

 of the grassy " Denes " in the vicinity of Yarmouth, 

 or the "Marram" hills, extending northward as far as 

 Happisburgh, which consist of steep banks of blown 

 sand loosely bound together with the roots of marram^ 

 (Arundo arenaria) and other grasses. Further inland, 

 again, are marshes in every stage of reclamation, and an 



* This local word is nearly identical with the Danish name of 

 the same plant, Marehalm — i.e., Mere-haulm or sea-straw. 



