250 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



Thames-side boatyard. If you see a man or 

 men, obviously good scullers, going just wherever 

 they jolly well please, without the slightest 

 regard to their proper course, you can safely bet 

 that they have something to do with a boatyard. 

 If you hit on persons similarly offending, but 

 evidently not workmen, in a boat, you can tell 

 that they are cyclists, and are keeping on the 

 near side of the road. The river would be much 

 more comfortable if the populace were instructed 

 a little as the Referee has begged should be done. 

 Why not post at all the locks and on all the 

 bridges, also occasionally on camp-shedding, simple 

 directions for steering, as do the Chester Town 

 Council or Cheshire County Council or Dee 

 Conservators? Going up, say ''they," keep to 

 the right-hand side of the river. Come down on 

 the other, and there you are. If they would add 

 that anyone found guilty of standing up in a boat 

 while it is afloat shall be fined, and no one 

 allowed to get into one at all who cannot produce 

 a certificate of ability to swim, I would rejoice. 



Please to understand that in praising the 

 Chester river authorities for publicly notifying the 

 rule of their river's waterway, I do not mean that 

 the same rules ought to be adopted everywhere 

 — only, that whatever the local regulations may 

 be should be publicly shown you. There is 

 another point in which the Dee's traffic-managers 

 score. The river seems to be so well cared for, 

 if you may use the expression. I couldn't help 

 noting the way in which snags and the like were 

 kept cleared, and snags in the Thames are a very 

 sore point with many of us. Somebody ought to 

 see that the banks are free from these dangerous 

 obstructions. On the face of it you would think 



