No. 4.] INUNDATED LANDS. 387 



ever larger streams, which keep open certain channel ways 

 by which they find ingress and egress from the widening 

 plain. These creeks are regularly distributed over the sur- 

 face of the marsh, and have a sectional area proportionate 

 to the amount of water which twice each day courses to and 

 fro through their channels. If the meadow is small, say a 

 few acres in extent, they are hardly noticeable. If, as is 

 sometimes the case, the marshes stretch for miles from the 

 firm land seaward, the larger channels or creeks may 

 appear as considerable rivers. 



Experience in this and other countries has shown that 

 these marshes when reclaimed afford soils of admirable fer- 

 tility. Some of the best lands which have been won to 

 agriculture in northern Europe have been from fields of this 

 description. Unlike the fresh-water bogs, the soil which 

 underlies the layer of fibrous peat does not contain an 

 excess of vegetable matter, and is extraordinarily rich in 

 materials which are most necessary for the growth of 

 economic plants. Experience shows that the fields which 

 are won from these marine marshes will endure the tax of 

 tillage for a generation without the need of refreshment by 

 manure. In fact, the soil is of such a nature that it pro- 

 vides a store of fertilizing material which can be readily 

 brought into the level of tillage by deep ploughing. Thus, 

 while on our true peat bogs formed beneath fresh water the 

 situation affords only an opportunity for securing in the 

 manner before described a soil which may be made a useful 

 foundation for culture, the chemical materials being supplied 

 as the necessity arises, marine marshes afford an earth 

 which is of a permanent and high order of excellence. When 

 properly won to agriculture, they are suited to all the 

 varied uses of field and garden in those cases where very 

 dry soil is not required. As in the case of the improved 

 fresh-water bogs, the marine marshes, when won to agricul- 

 ture, afford the exceeding advantage of having a controllable 

 water level. Thus they combine about all the advantages 

 which can fairly be demanded of a soil. 



The means whereby soils of this nature may be rendered 

 fit for tillage vary somewhat with the circumstances of their 

 position. Where the normal rise and fall of the tide 



