io Statice Limonium on the Banks of the Humber. 
a distance as possible. That involved a process of give and 
take, a piece of saltmarsh being left outside the bank in one 
spot, and an area of bare mud enclosed in another ; and as 
bare mud was not wanted, the balance was in favour of the 
saltmarsh. This has been particularly noticeable on the 
Humber shore, east of Pauli, where the majority of the recent 
enclosures have been long-triangular — the apex of the triangle 
lying towards Hull, and the two long, sides of the triangle 
being the old and the new banks respectively. But the 
saltmarsh has usually grown up with a frontage curved out- 
wards towards the main channel. Hence the construction of 
a straight bank has left a part of the saltmarsh outside in the 
shape of a segment of a circle ( e.g ., Cherry Cob Sands). An 
attempt was made to avoid this when the last bank on Sunk 
Island was built, and the foundation of the bank was laid in a 
straight line from the western end near the edge of the salt- 
marsh. But the extreme south-east corner of the enclosure 
was a large area of bare mud and had to be abandoned. 
It will be evident that when conditions have settled down 
after an enclosure, the region bordering the river should 
consist of an artificial bank, from which one descends to a 
strip, usually narrow', of saltmarsh, which passes gradually, 
without any abrupt alteration of level, into the bare mud. 
which is submerged at every tide. Given favourable con- 
ditions, the saltmarsh gradually extends outwards, its level 
near the bank rises, and in time another area is ripe for en- 
closure. 
On the north shore of the Humber, however, between Hulk 
and Spurn, the state described in the foregoing paragraph 
existed, in 1900-1904, only at a few points. One gained the 
impression that over the greater part of that length the 
limit of reclamation had been reached. Except along the 
last addition to Sunk Island from Hawkins Point to Welwick, 
not only was there no accretion, but erosion had occurred 
since the construction of the bank. In some places, e.g., at 
Salt end, this had been so serious that it had been necessary to 
protect the bank by facing it with timber, with a backing of 
chalk. In others, especially where extensive outstrays existed, 
the true saltmarsh had been eroded, so that the foreshore 
passed from salt pasture to bare mud with an abrupt fall,, 
in some cases a vertical cliff up to four feet in height. 
The condition last described was typical in 1900 of the 
greater part of the north bank of the Humber from Hull to 
Easington. Whether the cliff has in all cases originated by the 
erosion of a fringing saltmarsh it is not possible to say, but 
there does not appear to be any other feasible explanation of. 
it. In a few places, e.g., at Marfleet, Cherry Cob Sands and 
Stone Creek, the grassy area between bank and cliff formed- 
N aturalist : 
