A HIGH-ROAD IN THE SEA.
555
Broomway," runs for about ten miles along
the surface of the Maplin Sands, half a mile
or so from the shore, and is covered at high
tide by four or five feet of water. Over it
used by our warships during their speed
trials ; or of the outrageously long and costly
law case which decided the ownership of the
various fishing and other rights over them.
Yet very few,
except dwellers
in the immediate
vicinity of the
sands, have any
personal know-
ledge of them.
From a slight
distance the sur-
face of the Maplins
looks to the eye
like a dry, dreary
desert of brown
sand, as level and
smooth as a
billiard table.
Viewed close at
hand, however,
that surface is
seen to be covered
everywhere by
countless shallow
has to pass all heavy traffic to and from the
islands, both supplies for those who dwell
thereon and the produce they send to the
mainland. Lighter articles can be brought
on to the island
waterplashes, millions upon millions of tidal
ripple-marks, and worm-casts in number
beyond estimate. Moreover, it is not really-
level, having a slight and imperceptible
by ferry across
the Crouch (here
about a mile wide)
from Burnham
and elsewhere—
that is, when
weather permits.
Most people
have heard of the
Maplins—that
great stretch of
sands, some fif-
teen miles long by
three or four
broad, uncovered
only at low tide,
which lies im-
mediately against
the Essex coast
and on the north
side of the estuary
of the Thames.
One has often
read of ships
which have been stranded on them; of
test-firing over them, carried on by the
heavy artillery at Shoeburyness ; of the
"Measured Mile" on their southern edge,
slope towards its outer edge and the same
on its inner edge, close to the land, where
sand gives place to deep mud. No one has
given a better description of the appearance