3HE SWAN AN.D HER CREW. 



west, west, and south-west. The chief of them is the Yare, 

 which winds for thirty miles inward to the old city of Norwich. 

 On our right is the river Bure, or North River, which after a very 

 long and winding course leaves the marsh, and enters a richly- 

 wooded country. To the south is the Waveney, a clear and 

 beautiful stream, which flows past Beccles and Bungay, two 

 towns in Suffolk. All these rivers are slow of current, wide 

 and navigable not only for yachts, but for vessels of large 

 burden, such as wherries, billy-boys, and small steamers. The 

 banks of the rivers are fringed with tall reeds, and they flow 

 through miles of level marsh, where, as far as the eye can 

 reach, there is nothing to be seen but the white sails of the 

 yachts and the dark sails of the wherries, and occasional wind- 

 mills which are used for pumping the water out of the drains 

 into the rivers. In order to deepen the channel of the river 

 for the purposes of navigation, the embankments have been 

 raised so high that the surface of the water is much above the 

 level of the drains which carry the water off the surrounding 

 marshes, and so the water has to be pumped into the river out 

 of the drains by means of pumps set in action by windmills. 



Here and there amid the wide extent of marsh are large 

 lakes or lagoons, which are locally termed " broads. " These 

 are very numerous and many of them very large. Most of 

 them are connected with one or other of the rivers. Those on 

 the Yare, are Surlingham and Rockland Broads ; on the Bure, 

 or connected with it by long dykes, are Filby and Ormesby 

 Broads, Walsham, Ranworth, Hoveton, Wroxham, Barton, 

 Martham and Hickling Broads, and Heigham Sounds. All 

 these broads are full of fish, large pike and perch, and shoals of 

 enormous bream. They are all very shallow, and are surrounded 

 by dense aquatic vegetation, reeds, rushes, flags and bulrushes, 

 and these are the haunts of many rare birds, and swarm with 

 wild-fowl. 



The great characteristic of this part of the county is its utter 

 loneliness and wildness, both qualities which are of especial 

 interest to the sportsman and naturalist. As it is also the 

 most eastern county of England, it is the first to receive many 

 of the rarer migrants on their passage to our shores, and more 

 rare birds are caught there each year than in any other part of 

 our " tight little island." 



It is on the shores of Hickling Broad, and on a bright 



