15 



rendering it neither palatable nor wholesome. Admitting this, 

 however, its economical value is of no trifling amount, as thousands 

 of acres of fertile land, adjoining the low sandy parts of our coasts, 

 must within a few years be reduced to almost hopeless sterility 

 were it to be removed. To form any adequate idea of the distressing 

 effects produced upon cultivation by the drifting of sea-sand, we 

 must visit districts hable to its inroads, and notice, during the pre- 

 valence of high winds, the manner in which it is borne by their 

 resistless force inland. On one part of the coast of Norfolk, espe- 

 cially, the sand-flood is recorded as having advanced five miles over 

 the land of the interior, once fertile and productive during the past 

 century; but its influx is often far more rapid and fearful. A 

 district of more than ten miles square on the western coast of 

 Scotland, near the town of Forres, which on account of its fertility 

 was termed the granary of Moray, was completely inundated by it 

 in the course of a few years, so that not a vestige was to be seen of 

 the manor-house, orchards, and offices of the barony of Coubine to 

 which it belonged. The advance of the sand-flood, in this instance, 

 is said to have been so great, in the year 1769, that an apple-tree 

 was buried by it during that winter, only the very top of it ap- 

 pearing above the surface. This calamity was occasioned by some 

 persons thoughtlessly pulling up the Mat-grass that had previously 

 bound the surface of some sand-hills in the neighbourhood. It is 

 not only by restraining the inland drift of the dry sand, that the 

 importance of this innutritions, but otherwise valuable species of 

 grass is manifested. The banks and dunes on which it vegetates 

 are equally protected from being swept down by the sea which 

 raised them, a catastrophe to which they are liable during high tides 

 and in stormy weather ; and it is to their early acquaintance with 

 its efficacy in this respect, that the Hollanders and other maritime 

 peoples are indebted for the preservation of no inconsiderable portion 

 of territory. We are not without many examples of a similar kind 

 in our own island, and among these we may refer to the sea-port 

 of Hull, in Yorkshire, which would long since have been covered by 

 the waters, were it not protected by the ridge of sand called 

 Spurnpoint breaking the force of the waves before they reach the 

 town ; the point itself owing its stability against the tempestuous 

 action of the German Ocean to the Mat-grass by which it is over- 

 grown. 



The strength and toughness of the creeping stems render them 

 valuable to the lower classes inhabiting some parts of the coast, who 

 manufacture them into ropes and mats, and Withering observes 

 that those of Newborough, in Anglesea, derived their chief subsist- 

 ence from such employment. The land proprietor, the farmer, 

 and others interested in the soil, ought, however, to watch its ap- 

 propriation to such or any other purpose with a jealous eye ; its 



