566 MR. W. G. CLARKE ON BRECKLAND CHARACTERISTICS. 
of little benefit to the agriculturist. Much of the sand is 
probably wind-drifted, derived in part from patches of drift 
sand occasionally found on the boulder clay, and in part from 
the decomposition of the sandy boulder clay itself. Mr. 
€. G. Barrett described it as “a loose light sand precisely 
such as is found on the North Denes at Yarmouth at the present 
time ” * (1870). This forms a perfect filter-bed, absorbing 
water with great rapidity, and even during the heaviest 
storms pools of water never form on the heathland. Villages 
on the high lands are consequently very healthy, and the 
large open areas of sandy soil seem to invest the air with tonic 
properties usually associated with the mountains or the 
sea-coast. Mr. H. Dixon Hewitt. F.I.C., informs me that this 
sandy soil frequently contains 88-89 % °f silica and insoluble 
matter from the clay. Its chief characteristic is the very 
low proportion of potash, at once disproving a theory which 
has been put forward, that the peculiarities of flora are due 
to the quantity of felspathic debris, as this contains much 
potash. In the boulder clay itself there is usually a goodly 
proportion of potash derived from ground-up igneous rocks, 
but this seems almost all to have been removed from the sand. 
Considering the coast fauna and flora it would, however, be 
interesting to ascertain what proportion of sodium chloride 
these sands contain compared with others from inland localities. 
Before trees were planted, sandstorms, especially during 
westerly and south-westerly gales were frequent, the soil being 
light and dry and freely exposed to the influence of wind and 
sun. The writer of the article on the “ breck ” district in 
Vol. I. of Stevenson’s ‘Birds of Norfolk’ — I am informed by 
Mr. T. Southwell, F.Z.S.,that thiswas probably Professor Alfred 
Newton, F.R.S. — said : “ The effect of high winds after dry 
weather in this district is not easily described. The whole 
air is filled with sand till it resembles a London fog.” Real 
sandstorms are now chiefly confined to Lakenheath and 
Wangford Warrens and parts of the heathland near Ickling- 
ham, but in high winds sand is blown from the surface of the 
fields quite across the roads, sometimes forming drifts a foot 
* Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. i. p. 62. 
