PORTS AND HARBOURS f of modern sea transport. London and Antwerp regularly receive vessels of 20,000 tons and over, with draughts exceeding 30 ft.* Cargo vessels, drawing 2o ft. only, can reach Rouen all the year round, and those drawing 23 ft. during rather less than 200 days annually. Barges of 2,000 tons burden penetrate to Strasburg, 200 miles above Cologne, and barges of 1,000 tons are towed by tug up to Basle. This increasing restriction on the size of vessels, due to the narrowing and shallowing of the river channel, detracts from the importance of River Ports and makes such ports eager, if possible, to merit the title of Seaport, which, in the loose sense in which it is now used, may be said to apply to all ports which can receive sea-going vessels. Apart from these physical restrictions, a riverside situation has other definite drawbacks to navigation. Most rivers have tortuous courses, with awkward bends and difficult reaches, which necessitate careful manceuvring and a very competent knowledge of the channel. The navigable course is necessarily narrow, and may be thronged with small craft, which in times of fog and dark- ness render the difficulties of navigation greater still. The cost of deepening and regulation works is often con- siderable, and indeed a point is soon reached beyond which it becomes prohibitive. Glasgow is an example of a port which has greatly improved its accessibility to shipping. Years ago—not many in a modern sense—the Clyde was little better than a small stream with 4 or 5 ft. at low water. Now there is sufficient depth to enable a ship drawing 30 ft. to reach Glasgow Harbour. But the cost of carrying out such improvements in a river is necessarily heavy, and it is not difficult to see that there must be a limit to remunerative outlay. 1 The deepest draught of a vessel which has entered the King George V Dock at London, to date, has been 36 ft. The loaded draught of the Belgenland in the Scheldt is 32 ft. Smaller vessels reach Antwerp with a draught of 33 ft. I’