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TWENTY YEARS ON THE NORFOLK FENS. 

 By Last C. Farman. 



Before entering into details respecting the fauna of the 

 district in which I reside, it will perhaps be best to describe the 

 locality. 



The little old-time village of Haddiscoe nestles on the verge 

 of the watery vale of the Waveney, and abuts the main turnpike 

 road. In a north-easterly direction is situate the famous town 

 of Great Yarmouth, some eight miles distant as the crow flies. 

 About the same amount of mileage would take us to the eastern- 

 most point of England, viz. the town of Lowestoft. Immediately 

 on passing through the village, we reach the celebrated Norfolk 

 fen or marshland, stretching away in a northerly direction 

 as far as the eye can reach, its flatness only broken by the 

 numerous drainage mills dotted about like sentinels. Looking 

 in a north-easterly direction one sees the Herringfleet Hills, 

 covered with heather and bracken and crowned by tall firs. It 

 is but two miles from the village to these hills, to reach which 

 we must cross one of the narrowest parts of the fens by the main 

 road, locally called the dam, bent and twisted about like some huge 

 serpent, and studded on either side with closely planted willows. 

 At the foot of these hills meanders the old brown Waveney, from 

 which this valley takes its name. In the midst of the fir trees 

 we have referred to, ripple the waters of Fritton Lake. This 

 lake during the winter months teems with wildfowl, and decoy 

 pipes are successfully worked, some hundreds of Duck and other 

 species of wildfowl annually having their necks wrung by the 

 decoyman's hands. When winter storms burst upon us, thousands 

 of wildfowl congregate on this lake, and flighting at night they 

 scatter around the district, dropping all over the fens into the 

 weedy ditches and shallows. It is almost needless to state that 

 in such a district, and despite the revenue tax, wildfowlers are 

 numerous, and on favourable nights an almost incessant fusillade 



