TOPOGRAPHY OF BLAKENEY POINT. 11 



tides. And not only is the material shot over, but it is also 

 driven down the lee slope by the breakers, commonly emerging 

 on the fringe as a projecting talus fan. This is the typical 

 procedure all along the Marams the fans or fingers (Fig. 6) 

 projecting over the saltings and there remaining in situ on 

 account of the protection from scour afforded by the hook- 

 shaped lateral banks. Successive storms (it may be after the 

 lapse of years) reinforce identical fans with additional shingle. 

 This constancy in the dynamic lines of travel is of course 

 referable to the permanance of the gaps between the Suteda 

 bushes (well established on the Marams), which act as lines of. 

 least resistance. 



Now, that part of the main bank to the East of the Marams 

 is without Suaeda bushes ; moreover, from Kelling to the Cley 

 Channel it is backed by a sea wall to protect the reclaimed 

 marshes. Throughout this section of the bank the travelling 

 shingle becomes heaped up against the bank, and, in the case of 

 the Salthouse marshes, at very many points has burst through 

 the wall and spread in great fans, about two feet deep, over the 

 actual surface of the marshes. 



As no effective means have been taken in recent years to 

 repair the Salthouse bank, the condition described is going from 

 bad to worse.' 5 In contrast to this may be mentioned the 

 section of marshes between Salthouse and Cley. Here the wall, 

 evidently under difficult conditions and at considerable expense, 

 has been kept in repair, with the result that it has been possible 

 to exclude the drift of shingle up to the present time. 



From these marshes to the Marams (half-a-mile) the shingle 

 bank has rapidly encroached on the unprotected Cley channel. 

 The shingle stands as a cliff on the seaward flank of the channel 

 some six to eight feet in height, but the projecting fans or 

 fingers of shingle are washed away, as soon as formed, by the 

 current which here undercuts the bank. As a consequence, the 

 channel has latterly become much blocked by shingle and 



5. However deplorable this section of the bank may be from a purely economic 

 point of view, it is replete with instructive illustrations of the dynamics of shingle 

 flow. 



