NAVIGATION. 121 



stopping. Or two men meeting on a broad path, 

 with plenty of room to pass one another, how often 

 does it not happen that they can only escape 

 collision by one or both stopping ? 



The rule of the road 1 at sea seems to me good in 

 almost every particular as it stands in the interna- 

 tional regulations, some of which I have just now 

 read to you ; and certainly among all the comments 

 upon the lav/ relating to them, I have scarcely 

 heard any proposal for its improvement except 

 national and international provisions for punish- 

 ment for breaches of them, even when not leading 

 to disaster. The most perfect steering rules cannot 

 but leave a margin of doubt in the limit between 

 the two cases in which a ship ought to alter its 

 course and ought not to do so, or again between the 

 two cases in which a ship ought to alter its course 

 in one direction, and ought to alter its course in 

 the contrary direction. This doubt essentially 



1 By "rule of the road," I did not mean to include the rules con- 

 cerning lights to be carried by ships or boats at sea which form part 

 of the whole set of " Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea." 

 These rules too are generally approved of, but in some important 

 details various amendments have been urged on very good grounds. 



