SHINGLE DRIFT
 233
Marsh off the Hood began to rise in level, the section from the Hood to the Watch House has enjoyed some slight measure of protection, and this finds expression in the establishment of a line of Suasda seedlings from the Hood for a distance of several hundred yards in the direction of the Watch House. These seedlings arose from seed ripened in 1912 and left all along the drift line. Originally the line was continuous, but by the summer of 1916 there were a good many gaps. By that time the average height of the survivors, sturdy little plants, was about 18 inches.
   Should the Samphire Marsh continue to rise, it is to be expected that Suasda seedlings will eventually spread all along this section of bank.
   Another feature of interest on both these sections is the eastward drift of the shingle along the lee fringe. This results from the south-westerly gales. As a consequence, the shingle tends to accumulate in the western corners of the Hood and Watch House bank, respectively.
  The accumulation by the Watch House is very striking indeed, forming a marked excrescence which has sensibly increased during the last six years. Should it continue, the head of the angle or recess will be isolated as a “low” when the bulge stretches across to meet the Watch House bank. These corners are also regular traps for vegetable drift (seaweed and Zostera), which is swept up here in quantities from the muds of the harbour. As a consequence, a rich humus soil is formed in which the Suasda bushes luxuriate.
   The shingle which accumulates to form the bulge represents attrition from the lee face of the bank; it is not replaced by drift from farther west, as the Hood stands in the way, and acts as a natural groyne. The only source from which it can be replaced is by shingle washed down from the crest by super-tides; whether this in amount compensates for the wastage it is impossible to say.
   This same section of beach exhibits occasionally, in common with the stretch between the Marams and Cley, another phenomenon, viz. percolation ravines. With very high tides the whole top of the beach is gorged with sea water, and at the ebb much