MarsJdaiid. 



109 



called tlie marsh district,'' which intervenes between the Fens, 

 properly so called, and the ocean. Indeed, so interesting a 

 country, originally reclaimed from the dominion of the deep, and 

 forming a large portion of what is, in its most extended sense, 

 the Great Level of the Fens, cannot properly be omitted. 



The ichole extent of flat country between the hills and the sea 

 may be regarded as an alluvial deposit, the principal part being 

 now a blue clay. The Black Fen districts consist of all those 

 localities where vegetation once flourished, but has since perished 

 and decayed ; thus forming a crust of vegetable mould over the 

 former soil. Xearer to the sea, and principally in Lincolnshire, 

 is a breadth of the same deposit which has remained unclad by 

 those immense primeval forests, and is on a higher level : and 

 then, bordering upon the ocean, are still later deposits of loam 

 and silt, which constitute the Marsh district. The two latter 

 compose the level tract, which has been previously described as 

 extending from Lynn, through Wisbech, Holbeach, Boston, &c., 

 to Wainfleet, and forming a margin, of considerable breadth, for 

 many miles up the various rivers which empty themselves into 

 the Wash. It may be estimated to embrace not less than 130,000 

 acres - the accumulation of alluvial matter being of varied thick- 

 ness and texture, and deriving its character from the nature and 

 quality of the particles of highland soil brought down by the 

 rivers. 



Marsldand. — The first district then to be noticed is that of 

 ^'Marshland," in Xorfolk,the adjoining fens of which have just been 

 adverted to. It lies principally between Lynn and Wisbech, and con- 

 tains about 30,000 acres, comprising 17 parishes. The soil of the 

 whole is the subsidence of a muddy water, with what the waves, 

 powerful in their agitation, had washed from the bottom of the 

 adjoining gulf which forms the embouchure of two considerable 

 rivers. It is a mixture of sea-sand and mud, which is of so argil- 

 laceous a quality, probably owing to the stiff upland country 

 through which the Ouse flows, that the surface soil which covers 

 the sand is strong and tenacious enough to be regarded as clav. 

 The whole country having been a present from the ocean, there 

 still remain ranges of banks at a distance from each other, 

 showing the progressive advances which industry has effected, 

 eager to seize the spoils which so dreaded an enemy has relin- 

 quished. One of these banks is called the Roman ;" its distance 

 from the shore is not so great as it would have been, had the sea 

 in all ages been as liberal as it is in this. The whole country 

 was liable, upon a breach of the outermost, or ••' sea-dike " bank, 

 to be inundated ; and history furnishes numerous instances of 

 such a catastrophe, the most terrible being one which occurred 

 in A.D. 1613. On the 1st of November, ''late in the night. 



