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president’s address. 
comes from the north, is divided into two by this shoal, 
one stream flowing to the Wash, and the other being deflected 
by the banks, and constantly adding to them with detritus 
from the Yorkshire cliffs. The apex of the triangle, i.e., the 
Docking Shoal, continually grows out to the northward 
(North Sea Pilot). This latter stream takes a south-easterly 
course and strikes the land in the neighbourhood of Salthouse 
and Weybourne, thence following the coast line in the ordinary 
way. The effect of this triangle of shoal has been to protect 
the coast from Hunstanton to Weybourne, both from 
heavy seas and strong tidal currents ; further, a somewhat 
complex tidal current sets during part of the ebb out of the 
Wash through Brancaster Bay, laden with fine mud from 
the great Fen rivers, which is deposited by the ensuing high 
water on the Great Meal Marsh, a level of rich alluvial soil, 
ten to fifteen feet thick, overlying sand and gravel ; the 
amount of mud deposited this way must be immense ; after 
a high tide has left the marsh, every leaf of Wormwood and 
Sea Elite, and every blade of grass shows a grey deposit of 
fine mud. The tidal marsh which extended to Glandford 
Mill was banked at Cley in 1824, and sluices were built ; 
the tidal marsh close to Cley has since that time been raised 
by this deposit some five or six feet above the level of this 
old tidal marsh within the wall, and is now only covered 
by shallow water at the height of Spring tides. A definite 
law which affects tidal districts is that in proportion as tidal 
marshes are reclaimed and the area covered by the tide dimin- 
ished, so more and more marsh offers itself for reclamation, 
and the port by which the tide enters becomes for lack of 
scouring more choked up. 
I now come to a consideration of Blakeney Harbour ; 
there are few corners of Norfolk which afford such opportunities 
to the true lover of Nature. Every Norfolk Naturalist who 
follows the pursuit of Botany or Geology, or has studied his 
Stevenson with the admirable notes on Blakeney by Mr. 
