INTRODUCTION. XXV 



that this consolidating process is accelerated to a great 

 extent by the soil, washed down after floods, from the 

 roads and uplands ; hut whether this be the case or 

 not, there seems little doubt that wherever a peaty sub- 

 stratum is permitted to carry on its reclamatory action, 

 the existence of such a Broad, as a shallow reservoir, 

 becomes a mere question of time. Hickling, of course, 

 with a gravelly foundation, is free from danger on 

 this account. As to the rest we must hope that the 

 marketable value of reeds and rushes will henceforth 

 increase, and the area of demand be extended far beyond 

 our own borders. Thus by a yearly harvesting of 

 such marsh produce, the slow processes of nature might 

 be effectually checked, and the majority of our Broads 

 preserved to us for many years to come, to afford 

 sport and pastime to the gunner and angler, and hours 

 of recreation to the scientific collector of birds, plants, 

 and insects. Yet, even now, though in many places 

 cultivation borders closely upon the actual swamps, a 

 stranger visiting these watery wastes, would amidst 

 the luxuriance of the aquatic herbage, and the stillness, 

 broken only by nature's sounds experience such a 

 feeling of perfect isolation as few would deem it possible 

 to realise, at the present day, anywhere in the old 

 country. 



Before quitting the Broads, properly so called, it 

 may be as well to allude, here, to several natural pools 

 or " Meres," which are all situated within a compara- 

 tively small area near the southern boundaries of the 

 county. These inland waters, originating in landsprings, 



latest of which was of the reign of Edward VI., proves that there 

 was water when the coins were sunk, and the peat has grown up 

 since, and become a solid turf ground. It is formed by the annual 

 growth and decay of several marsh plants, as the Typha latifolia, 

 and angiAstifolia, Scirpus lacustris, Cladium mariscus, &c., and 

 is estimated at the rapid growth of a foot in twenty years." 

 d 



