96 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



cross drain, which from the end of the rond takes a most 

 sinuous course to Duffell's drain ; but there is still plenty of 

 water under us. My quant is somewhat like a boat-hook, 

 minus the iron shodding, to which at half a right angle a 

 wooden toe is fastened to prevent its sinking in the mud at 

 every thrust. Poor old " Pero " Pestell constructed this for 

 my especial use. We will stop a little while with Jary, and 

 gossip till the tide falls. 



We had scarcely fastened the punt to Jary's houseboat 

 and stepped aboard ere an open boat, manned by " Snicker" 

 Larn, his comrade " Short 'un " Page, and another old fellow, 

 came up, and hitched on their painter to the houseboat's 

 " ringle." They were up after smelts ; before the tide eases 

 they will have left us, and gone right up the Duffell's drain 

 to shoot their net, which they do the moment there is ebb 

 tide sufficient to move it along downstream. For the pre- 

 sent they are ready to load their pipes and have a friendly 

 " draw," and are as ready as ever to discuss old Breydon and 

 the days of yore, not forgetting to wedge in many a grumble 

 about the day we live in. 



" Look J ere," said "Snicker," "things is rotten nowadays 

 Breydon'll never see the likes again." 



"You think not?" I queried. 



"'Bor, I know it!" he answered dogmatically. "Look how 

 Breydon's grow'd up," he said. " Why, the tide's no suner on 

 the flats than it's off; why, theer useter be enuf water at 

 ornery tides to sail about anywheer at low water it's the 

 silth and filt what done it." 



"The what?" 



" The silth and filt the mud from up river and the refuge 

 from the town it get in that old grass \Zosterd\ and settle 

 theer every tide can't get away. There's ten times more on 

 it than there wor sixty year ago." 



" Now look here," I said, " when you place an obstruction 

 out in a tideway it makes a corresponding eddy " 



"Yes," he nodded. 



" Well, when they built the Dickey Works a sort of close- 

 boarded jetty, up there near Berney Arms, and drove the 

 water from the two rivers meeting there into one common 



