2 TOPOGRAPHY AND VEGETATION OF BLAKENEY POINT. 



entrusted to a special " floristic section," under the leadership 

 of Dr. E. J. Salisbury, and it is largely the preliminary state- 

 ment of the results obtained by this section which forms the 

 subject matter of the present communication. This statement 

 is for convenience preceded by a general introductory account 

 of what is topographically important in the area as a whole, 

 with especial reference to the distinctive characters of the 

 various types of habitat into which the ground naturally falls. 



F. \V. O. 



PART I. TOPOGRAPHY. 

 BY PROFESSOR F. W. OLIVER. 



GENERAL FEATURES. 



Blakeney Point is technically a shingle spit, a type of 

 construction of which numerous examples occur on the English 

 coasts. It leaves the shore at a point on the North coast of 

 Norfolk, near Weybourne, and runs for a distance of about eight 

 miles in a direction slightly North of West. The extremity 

 ends freely in the sea, just short of Stiffkey, at a distance of 

 about one and a-half miles from the shore. On its landward 

 side is a long, narrow, tidal inlet, known as Blakeney Harbour, 

 which receives at Cley the waters of the River Glaven. This 

 estuary has become much silted up, and bears a covering of 

 salt marsh intersected by creeks and channels, now navigable 

 only at high tide by fishing boats and other vessels of small 

 tonnage. The salt marshes of the upper part of the estuary 

 have been reclaimed for pasture by the construction of banks 

 reaching above tidal limits. 



The total area within the spit, including the marshes, is about 

 five square miles, of which rather more than one and a-half 

 square miles consist of reclaimed, and two square miles of un- 

 reclaimed, salt marshes (" saltings ") ; the remainder consists 

 of bare mud. 



The dominating topographical feature is the shingle spit, 

 which follows the edge of the shallow coastal shelf and delimits 

 the seaward side of Blakeney Harbour. Along irs course, to 



