THE MAMMALIA OF GREAT YARMOUTH AND
ITS IMMEDIATE NEIGHBOURHOOD.
By Arthur Patterson.
Great Yarmouth, the second town in importance in Norfolk, and celebrated the world over for its Herring fishery and "bloater cure," stands on a peninsula; it is bounded on the east by the North Sea, and on the west by the River Yare, from which it derives its name. It is situated in lat. 52° 36' 40" north, and long. 1° 44' 22" east. From London it is 108 miles in a direct line, and south-east from Norwich nineteen miles "as the crow flies."
Southwards to Lowestoft extends a long line of cliffs, averaging 30 ft. in height, "composed principally of disrupted crag, sand, and clay, beneath which has occasionally been laid bare a stratum of blue clay, the wreck of the Lias."[1] In these cliffs the remains of the Mammoth, and on one occasion the skull of a Beaver, have been met with.
Northward runs a long range of low sandhills, which, like the cliffs southwards, have been and are suffering severely from the encroachments of heavy tides; as recently as Nov. 29th, 1897, the sea broke through immediately north of Winterton, drowning a number of Rabbits on the warren. Owing to want of sufficient care in keeping up the sandhills, and encouraging the growth of the marrum grass (Ammophila arundinacea), Agropyrum junceum, the sand-sedge (Carex arenaria), all of which are indigenous to the locality, they are become no longer a sturdy barrier against the wild ravings of the rough North Sea. The North and South Denes are less conspicuous undulations of blown sand held together by the creeping roots of the rest-harrow (Ononis spinus), the sea-purslane (Arenaria peploides), and others. Within the past few years the furze, which came quite up to the town
- ↑ C.J. and James Paget, 'A Sketch of the Natural History of Great Yarmouth,' p. iv. 1834.
