Mr. R. C. Taylor oh the Geology of East Norfolk. 427 



its waters would be capable of sweeping away at one time, 

 what they may have brought at another ; for " it is physically 

 impossible that water, even in a state of the most impetuous 

 agitation, should raise any permanent barrier against its own 

 course." 



It is no less singular than true, that in the whole circuit of 

 our shores, wherever the substantial barriers of high lands, 

 cliffs and rocks are wanting, except in the cases of retiring un- 

 exposed inlets, nature has substituted defences of sand, accu- 

 mulated by the winds, preserved by peculiar plants, and rarely 

 requiring the assistance of man to render them eifectual. 



Has Mr. Robberds never rambled by the side of the sand- 

 hills, formed by the actions of the winds, along the coast be- 

 tween Winterton and Happisburgh; or witnessed the remark- 

 able ridges of sand, provincially termed Meals, by which the 

 harbours of Cley, Blakeney, Wells, Burnham and Brancaster, 

 are securely defended from the fury of the northerly gales ? 

 These hills are 50 or 60 feet high ; they are cornposed of dry 

 sand, bound in a compact mass by the long creeping roots and 

 fibres of the plant called marram: — Arundo arenaria*. To 

 this singularly useful plant the sand-hills owe their consolida- 

 tion and elevation ; it has been cultivated with some care upon 

 our coast, and the industrious Dutch are indebted to its assist- 

 ance for the preservation of their islands and flat coasts. 



On the western coast, where the tides attain a great eleva- 

 tion, the marshes of Pembrey in Carmarthenshire have four 

 or five concentric ridges of similar hillocks, forming as perfect 

 and permanent barriers against the sea as the art of man 

 could execute. 



The mouth of the River Ogmoor, in Glamorganshire, pre- 

 sents a singular appearance of desolation at the present mo- 

 ment, through the agency of the wind and sand. Its ancient 

 channel is filled up for two miles ; houses are rendered unin- 

 habitable, and sand-hills are raised nearly 150 feet. The moun- 

 tains which bound the harbour will check the advance of this 

 sand-flood into the interior ; otherwise it threatens to over- 

 whelm all the lands which adjoin it ; while the squalls of wind, 

 rushing down the steep valleys, occasion eddies, which deposit 

 the sand at an elevation apparently far beyond the reach of 

 such an irresistible enemy. 



There is no need to multiply instances ; and having men- 



• " One of the most valuable grasses for bimling the sand of the sea- 

 shore, and raising tlicie banks wliicli in Norfolk, and especially in Holland, 

 are the thief defences of the country against the encroachments of the 

 ocean. Elymus armarium. Carer nrcnmia, and even Frsiucn rubra, conin- 

 bute to the' same end." SmithV Knglish Flora, vol. i. p. I7-. 



;{ 1 2 tioned 



