THE MAMMALS, REPTILES, AND 

 FISHES OF ESSEX. 



INTRODUCTION. 



ESSEX, the tenth English county in point of 

 size, contains an area of some 987,623 

 acres. It is of irregular shape, and measures sixty- 

 three miles in length, from S.W. to N.E. On 

 the south, it is bounded by the Thames ; on the 

 north, by the river Stour ; the rivers Lea and Stort 

 divide it on the west from Hertfordshire ; and 

 its eastern limit is the North Sea. 



The sea-board of the county is deeply indented 

 by the four large estuaries of the rivers Thames, 

 Crouch, Black water and Stour, upon the shores of 

 which, as on the intervening sea-line, a wide margin 

 of marsh occurs, more or less broken into low-lying 

 islands and tracts connected with the mainland. 



The shores of this marshy district consist of long 

 stretches of sand or mud, exposed at low water, and 

 intersected by creeks, many of them also dry at low 



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