THE HERON AND ITS HAUNTS 81 



overhead, but you will find plenty close to your feet. 

 The mud flats here are hard slub ; you can walk over 

 them without fear of quags to swallow you up to the 

 knees, and deeper, unless you throw yourselves back- 

 wards and scratch out somehow. Winkles are all 

 over the place, crawling slowly like snails, and leaving 

 th^ir tracks behind them. Here is a pool left by the 

 tide ; so clear the water is that the most minute crab 

 or fish can be distinctly seen. What a collection of 

 creatures dart about hither and thither as we lift 

 up a mass of snapper-weed in the pool : small fish 

 of various kinds, the greater part young plaice and 

 flounders, with the common green crab of the saltings, 

 from the little nippers no larger than a shilling to 

 those near the size of your closed fist, which con- 

 gregate in hosts, thousands upon thousands of them, 

 in some parts of our coasts. Some would imagine it 

 to be a wild-goose chase coming to look for the heron 

 on these bare, hot, steaming flats, but we have found 

 him here before, and shall do so now. 



Mussel scalps, as they are called, abound here. 



There is a fitness in local terms which strikes one 

 more forcibly than pleasantly, as you would find if 

 your bare shins were to scrape an acquaintance with 

 the sharp edges of the shells, which cut like knives. 

 These scalps vary in height from that of a gallon 



G 



