10 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF NORWICH AND DISTRICT 
main watershed whose present position is somewhat to the east of the 
original line, due in part to the work of the ice invasions and the work 
done by the obsequent streams Babingly, Gaywood, Nar, Wissey, Thet. 
The upper parts of these westerly flowing rivers have cut deep and 
picturesque valleys, the Nar being especially noteworthy for the number 
of priories, now in ruins, which used to flourish there. On the east side 
of this divide the longer rivers, the Yare and Wensum are clearly con- 
sequent on the dip of the chalk. The Cromer Morainic Ridge rises in 
places to over 300 ft., is a secondary water parting with its general direc- 
tion running at right angles to the main divide. ‘The north flowing rivers 
Glaven and Stiffkey which rise within its hummocks have cut steep-sided 
valleys both in the ridge itself and in the divide to the west. From the 
south side numerous streams issue forth, a few of these drain into the Wen- 
sum, but the majority form the affluents of the Bure and in the east a tiny 
rivulet, less than ten miles in length, finds its way to the sea independently. 
The latter, called the Mun Beck, has cut out for itself a miniature gorge 
at a spot in Mundesley where cliffs are high and erosion rapid. W. G. 
Clarke ® suggested ‘ Before the land receded so far it may have been 
connected with a little stream which flows inland from Bromholm Abbey 
into the Ant.’ If this was true then the water from the Mun Beck at one 
time found its way into the Bure. In their lower courses the Yare and 
Bure meander sluggishly over the low-lying marshes which now occupy 
the site of a wide depression forming an arm of the sea in pre-Roman 
times. The rivers find their way to the sea together by a narrow outlet 
between Yarmouth and Gorleston. The surface drainage from Mundesley 
to Yarmouth is inland, and the rivers of this district such as the Thurne 
and Muck Fleet all help to swell the volume of water carried by the Bure. 
Two interesting features may be mentioned in passing: first, the gap 
between Happisburgh and Horsey, most probably a recent outlet to the 
sea, which has been blocked up by beach deposits and blown sand, and 
secondly, springs which occur at intervals near the coast and form inter- 
mittent trickles which flow seawards and lose themselves by sinking in 
the sandy beach. The third essential feature in the drainage system is 
the through valley of the Little Ouse—Waveney. In this narrow trough, 
at a spot about one mile south of South Lopham the headstreams of the 
Waveney and Little Ouse are divided by a bank of sands and gravel. 
This bank, most probably glacial in origin, running transversely across the 
trough has been almost worn away by erosion, and the construction of a 
roadway over its site has almost completely cloaked the natural causeway 
which furnished an easy means of communication between the North 
and South Folk. 
The coast line of Norfolk is charming, yet terrifying and interesting. 
Its cliffs, sands, quaint fishing villages, seaside towns, salt marshes and 
sand dunes are a delight to the artist and holiday-maker, but submerged 
off-shore sandbanks, local currents and north-easterly gales are often a 
source of danger to the shipping which passes close by its shores. History 
reminds us of the ravages of the Danes, the exploits of smugglers, the 
devastating inroads made by the sea when it breached the slender sand 
6 W.G. Clarke, Norfolk and Suffolk (1920). 
