Soft Marsh

Soaking wet earth shimmers in the grey water's edge as little duck feet waddle through the grass and duckbills grind away into the dirt, digging for an afternoon snack to satisfy their incessant hunger. The snaking river runs through the silent landscape, meeting the horizon in a sweet spilling over the edge of the earth. A marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss. A marsh is different from a swamp, which has a greater proportion of open water surface and may be deeper than a marsh. In North America, the term "swamp" is used for wetland dominated by trees rather than grasses and low herbs. Coastal marshes may be associated with estuaries, and are also found along waterways between coastal barrier islands and the inner coast. The estuarine marsh, or tidal marsh, is often based on soils consisting of sandy bottoms or bay muds. An example is the Tantramar Marsh of eastern Canada. Decomposition of plant materials below water often produces methane, which may begin to burn by self-ignition making mysterious lights known locally as will o' the wisps, jack-o'-lanterns, or sprites. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=122999