82 
F. W. Oliver. 
straight shingle spit. The three hook-systems are marked on the 
map (Text-fig. 3) as A, B and C. The system A (known locally as 
“ the Marams ”) begins about four-and-a-half miles from the point at 
which the bank leaves the shore, and includes no fewer than eight 
successive hooks distributed over a length of less than a mile : in 
association with these hooks, in the bays between, salt-marshes 
have sprung up. 
The group B is one-third of a mile further on, and consists of 
three banks which have become partially overlaid with blown sand. 
This system is known as “ the Hood.” A quarter of a mile beyond, 
the last series (C), constituting Blakeney Point, is reached, where 
at least ten more hooks are involved. 
This marked and unusual oscillation of type on the Blakeney 
Bank suggests the possibility that its explanation is to be found in 
the special circumstances of the history of this area. Though it is 
premature to dogmatise on an obscure question of this kind, it is 
significant that considerable and successive reclamations of salt- 
marsh have been carried out on the landward side of the Blakeney 
Bank (see Text-fig. 3, the areas 1, 2, 3, reclaimed in this order). It 
seems obvious that as a consequence of each reclamation less tidal 
water would be required to fill the marsh, so that the rate of flow 
and consequent scour at the tip would thus be reduced. Under 
these conditions the bank might revert for a while to the juvenile 
phase, until its extension once more induced an increased scour with 
further formation of hooks. 
However this may be—and the lapse of time since these occur¬ 
rences makes it improbable that the detailed history of this particular 
bank should be recoverable—it is quite evident that the formative 
agencies which co-operate in the building of a shingle spit collectively 
form a piece of mechanism of extreme sentiveness, liable to respond 
in a very conspicuous way to any disturbance in the balance of 
forces which for the moment determine the mode of growth. 
Though in the foregoing section the main types of shingle bank 
have been discriminated, it is expedient to give a brief explanation 
of the status of the Chesil Bank in relation to those types—more 
especially as some account of its surface relief and plant habitats 
will be included in the sequel. 
The Chesil Bank forms the most considerable and imposing 
accumulation of shingle in the British Isles and is more than fifteen 
miles in length—stretching as a continuous strip of shingle from 
