out of the direct course of the present river; they therefore receive little of the sediment brought down in flood-time. On the other hand they are steadily being filled up with growing vegetation and turned into peat mosses.
The origin of these shallow freshwater lakes, which form a characteristic feature in the scenery of East Anglia, has been much debated; but with the knowledge obtained from a study of the submerged forests the explanation is perfectly simple. During this period of slow submergence each of the shallow valleys in which the broads now lie was turned into a wide and deep navigable estuary, which extended inland for many miles. When the subsidence stopped the sea and tides soon formed bars and sand-banks at the mouths of the estuaries, and lateral tributaries pushed their deltas across. The Norfolk rivers, being small and sluggish, were driven to one side, and could neither cut away the sand-banks nor fill up with sediment such wide expanses. These estuaries therefore were silted up with tidal mud and turned into irregular chains of lakes, separated by irregular bars and sand-banks. The lakes, instead of becoming rapidly obliterated and filled up by deltas which crept gradually seaward, remained as freshwater broads; for as soon as a bank became high enough for the growth of reeds and sedges the river mud was strained out and only nearly clean water
