166 THE LAST ENGLISH HOME 



other afloat moving straight up to one, to pass by at 

 eight or nine miles an hour, sailing to all appearance 

 on dry ground. The navigable channels are most of 

 them natural cuttings in the dead level of the marsh, 

 invisible at a very few yards' distance. 



The name of the long pole, which is one of the 

 most important parts of the equipment of the Norfolk 

 wherry the 'Quant' is, by the bye, a memorial of 

 the days of Roman occupation. It was with a quant, 

 spelt a little differently in Virgil's day, that Sergestus 

 in the immortal boat-race tried to shove off' his galley 

 when he had cut his corner too finely and run aground ; 

 and with a quant that Charon ferried his passengers 

 across the Styx : 



'Ipse ratem conto subigit velisque ministrat.' 



The entire district is unlike anything else in England, 

 and, apart from its power of recalling the past, has an 

 exceptional interest of its own for naturalists. It is 

 the paradise of shy creatures of all sorts, birds especially, 

 which love mud, or water, or reeds, and has been the 

 last settled English home of more than one rare species. 

 Their number, in spite of the keener interest taken of 

 late years by landowners hi bird preservation, steadily 

 decreases. 



The Avocet, with its spindle shanks and beak turned 

 up like a shoemaker's awl, which not very long ago 

 bred so freely in the salt marshes that ' poor people 

 made puddings and pancakes ' with their eggs, is now 

 the rarest accidental visitor. The Bittern, coinpara- 



