492 
TOPOGRAPHY OF BLAKENEY POINT. 
develops will shelter the preceding hook from wave buffeting and 
tidal scour. 
When the whole construction of the Spit is considered in 
relation to contemporary events, it becomes evident that growth 
has taken place from East to West by the superposition of a 
series of segments each of which has acquired, sooner or later, 
a landward hook. Though information is still required for the 
formulation of the precise conditions determining direct advance 
and deflection of the apex, respectively, there is no reason to 
doubt the periodic recurrence of these phases. 
The relations in space of these successive segments are 
given diagrammatically in Fig. 2, where every fifth segment is 
labelled with a number — the most easterly of the Marams 
series being No. 1. Each segment possesses a proximal and a 
distal portion ; the former, in alignment with the proximal 
parts of other segments, remains mobile ; the latter, as a hook, 
becomes stabilised. In some instances there is evidence that 
complete segments or portions of segments have either become 
masked by overlying sand or have been actually eroded away ; 
in these cases they are represented in the diagram by dotted 
lines. 
To recapitulate the history of the Blakeney spit: There was 
an earlier phase during which it grew unbranched, and a later 
phase during which repeated hooks or lateral banks were 
formed. These two phases are represented by the straight run 
from Weybourne to the beginning of the Marams (five miles), 
and by the highly complex distal part stretching from the 
beginning of the Marams to the tip of the Headland, respectively. 
That the production of laterals should be characteristic of the 
later phase of growth is just what might be expected and needs 
no discussion here 4 ; that these laterals should occur in clusters 
separated by non-lateral-bearing intervals depends probably on 
an aggregate of factors which includes the supply of materials, 
the incidence of storms, and perhaps the rate at which the 
estuary behind silted up. Of one phenomenon we have direct 
4 Cf. F. W. Oliver, “The Shingle Beach as a Plant Habitat,” New Phytol., 1912, p. 81. 
