RENOVATION OF MARSH -LAND. 95 



yield on an average two tons of hay, which is cut and 

 made at 5s. a ton, and may be sold on the field at 30s. a 

 ton, leaving a clear profit upon the land of 50s. an acre. 

 Nothing is done to marsh-land, except cutting the crop ; 

 and thus, at 15 an acre, it appears to be a good invest 

 ment for money, and attended with little trouble. But 

 marsh-land almost always forms the smallest part of a 

 farm, and is rarely sold separately. When the crop 

 upon it begins sensibly to diminish, the dykes are opened 

 for a few days, and the tides are allowed to enter and 

 renovate the land by a thin deposit, such as the Nile in 

 its annual floods spreads over the Delta of Egypt. In 

 some localities, this manuring operation is performed 

 every seven or eight years. 



A couple of miles below the ferry, on the west side of 

 the bay, high cliffs run along the shore for more than a 

 mile, against which, when the tide is full, the waves rise 

 to a considerable height. I took advantage of the low 

 water, when a broad margin of mud separated the sea 

 from the rocks, to walk along the shore beneath the cliff, 

 as far as Cape Demoiselles. The cliff is composed of 

 successive beds of red sandstone conglomerate, contain 

 ing pebbles of all sizes, rounded in various degrees, and 

 consisting chiefly of fragments of igneous and metamor- 

 phic rocks. It attains in some places a height of one 

 hundred feet, and is cut into caves of all forms and sizes, 

 and into blocks, and pillars, and coves, of a most inte 

 resting and pleasing variety. I regretted that fear of 

 the approaching tide, which might easily have closed 

 around me beneath these inaccessible rocks, compelled 

 me to hurry along where I would gladly have lingered. 

 The rocks dipped up, and towards the bay (north-east ;) 

 while the red cliffs on the opposite shore, as seen across 

 the bay, appeared to dip north-west. The whole of this 

 country is very much disturbed arid tossed about, so as to 

 give rise to much difficulty in determining the true order 



