THE BEACH
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   Landed on the shingle of the Headland, just south of the Life-boat House, the visitor finds himself in what may be termed the residential end of Blakeney Point. Dotted about within a small area are a few huts or bungalows privately owned, the old Life-boat House, which belongs to the Department of Botany at University College, London, and the Laboratory, a red-roofed building some little distance away. Standing between the flagstaff and the old Life-boat House is a dilapidated hut, the old Pilot House. Now surrounded by sand-hills and invisible from the sea, this house was erected on its present site about 1850, because at that time it commanded the best general view of the sea outside and of the approach of shipping to the harbour. The older seamen at Blakeney remember clearly a time when there were no sand-hills obstructing the view, whilst even in the last six years the advance of the dunes in this part is apparent to everybody familiar with the spot.
   Blakeney Point, as a whole, from the point of departure at Weybourne to the Life-boat House at the western extremity, may be compared to a gigantic golf club, the head of which, deflected landwards, corresponds to the broad, dune-covered Headland. The line of telephone poles, which runs straight from the Life-boat House to the Bend of the beach, follows approximately the south-east fringe of the dunes where they abut on the great Salicornia marsh, which occupies the valley (or “Beachway”) between the Headland and the Long Hills, the latter being the long finger of shingle which ends at Pits Point.
   Though at first sight the dune aggregate of the Headland may give the impression of being scattered without system, a stroll along the highest dune ridge parallel to the shore will suffice to show that the contrary is the case, and that the arrangement follows an orderly plan.
   The foundations of the Headland consist of successive shingle beaches (“apposition beaches”) with furrows or “lows” between. These beaches are approximately parallel to one another and to the major axis of the Headland (the line of telephone poles). These beaches have been driven in successively from the sea front, the outmost being the youngest, and they are formed of materials that have drifted along the fore-