190 
LONGSHORE MEMORIES 
NEARLY all the fauna of England were represented 
fully in our fens or marshes the red deer and the 
roe deer excepted. Foxes, badgers, otters, martens, 
polecats, stoats, weasels, rats, mice, voles, shrews, 
and moles were all gathered together in one district. 
Fish, of course, and reptiles and insects were there also, 
in abundance. In all the fens or marshlands where 
the water is free from salt, rank lush-vegetation will 
be seen in its perfection. About those spots where 
the salt water mingles with the fresh at times, owing 
to high tides and the natural creeks that run up to 
meet the inland streams, the tangle will not be quite 
so rank. You may get through it, with considerable 
pains, in certain places. No wonder that such local- 
ities, before they were drained, should have been a 
refuge for all wild creatures. 
Here the birds of prey literally held high revels ; 
and, in what was their paradise, the bittern boomed 
or bumped, the herons quarked harshly, and rails, 
