328 THE MARRAM BANKS. [CHAP, vn, 



low water a stratum of very old peat either stretching 

 into or encroached upon by the sea, and the foundations 

 of Eccles Church, now in ruins, are not out of the 

 reach of high tides. But if some huge subterranean 

 monster could set up his back, and by a gentle heave 

 raise the whole district a few feet above its present ele- 

 vation, it would be a capital thing for the landowners, 

 and at the same time a sure notice to quit to many ob- 

 jects of natural history that are still to be found there. 

 The sea has sometimes made its inroads on these low 

 lands, though they are well guarded against it now ; 

 and it has then taken pastures some time to recover 

 from the effects of the influx of salt water. The fence 

 which keeps the greedy waves of the ocean from licking 

 up this prostrate victim, that lies before it apparently 

 quite ready to be devoured, is not of human construc- 

 tion or contrivance, though we do all we can to aid 

 what we call " Nature " in the matter. There runs 

 along this part of the coast a line of sand-hills known 

 as " The Marram Banks." Something of the kind 

 may be seen in the sandy dunes near Calais. " The 

 Marram plant " is the local name for a species of reed 

 (Arundo arenaria, the true Marram ; though Elymus 

 arenarius and Carex arenaria assist in forming the plant) 

 which grows solely on these desert sandy salt wastes, 

 among the sparse blades of which the Rabbit plays its 

 gambols, and the Shieldrake used (for it is gone) to rear 

 its young. As the winds drift the sand from the beach, 

 it gets arrested in these tufts of Marram, like snow 

 in a hill-side clump of heather. The little hillock 

 of sand soon increases and spreads fast : for the Marram 

 grows the more, the more sand there is for it to grow 

 in. And again, still the more Marram, still the more 



