26 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



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 any one desire ? — what could add 

 to the fascinations of such a retreat ? A wood ! 

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



