WILD LIFE ON 

 A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



CHAPTER I 

 BREYDON 



THREE not inconsiderable rivers, the Yare, the 

 Waveney, and the Bure, fed by sundry smaller 

 streams, pour their mingled waters through Yar- 

 mouth Haven into the sea. In the course of their meander- 

 ings through the lowlands, here and there in the deeper de- 

 pressions of the valleys, they broaden out into shallow lakes 

 known as the famous Broads. At all seasons of the year 

 their waters are fresh, although at long intervals exceedingly 

 high tides carry up the " salts " perilously near to them. The 

 confluent rivers combine to form, on the western side of 

 Yarmouth, a large inland lake some miles in extent, known 

 as Breydon the Broad Water of the Saxons which acts as 

 a natural backwater to Yarmouth Harbour. 



I have often pictured to myself what a magnificent estuary 

 this water-covered plain must have been in the ages long ago, 

 when the Roman galleons sailed up Garienis Ostium to their 

 camp at Burgh Castle, signalling "All's well!" to the camp at 

 Caister, as their vessels ploughed the sea that then rolled over 

 the site of Yarmouth, as the North Sea now sweeps over 

 Scroby Sands. From the stern sheets of the old Moorhen I 

 can turn my glasses round, sighting clearly the hanger at 

 Caister West End, its sandy cliff-line distinctly showing 

 beyond the level of the Bure marshes, and trending away 

 north-west, forming a background for windmills and the 

 brown-tanned sails of the wherries that follow the course of 

 the winding Bure. To the westward the "heights" that were 

 B 



