68 



THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



where they had to lower their mast in order to pass under the 

 old grey stone bridge. 



Leaving the yacht moored by the Hermitage Staithe, they 

 walked to Filby and Ormesby Broads, an immense straggling 

 sheet of water with many arms about three miles from the river. 

 They hired a boat, and rowed about for some time, seeing plenty 

 of wild-fowl, but meeting with no adventure worth recording. 

 The broad is connected with the river by a long dyke called by 

 the euphonious name of Muck Fleet, but it is not navigable, 

 being so filled with mud and weeds. The growing obstruction 



WATER-RAIL. 



of this dyke is an illustration of the process which is going on 

 all over the Broad district day by day. Formerly a much larger 

 portion of it must have been water, 'but as the reeds grew they 

 decayed, and the rotten matter formed soil. This process was 

 repeated year after year and is going on now. The reeds extend 

 each year and form fresh soil each winter, and so the parts 

 which were always very shallow become filled up, and the extent 

 of marsh increases ; and then, as the extent of marsh increases, 

 it is drained and becomes firm, and then is finally cultivated, 



