large ships need plenty of water, and that the Avon, like some people of unsettled habits, has a strange fancy at times for leaving its bed unoccupied. Could the good people of Bristol be induced to dockise that very erratic stream within a respectable distance of its mouth, I am inclined to believe that many a shipowner who now sends his vessels to London would think it worth his while to escape the dangerous Channel passage by ordering them into Bristol, more especially with an equalization of railway rates. I never visit this grand old city, so rich in historic memories of maritime enterprise, the birthplace of Sebastian Cabot, the real founder of the great Russia Company, the moving spirit amongst the ‘Merchant Adventurers,’ and ‘Grand Pilot of England,’ without feeling that, sooner or later, she will again assert that supremacy in the West which is her natural heritage. The new docks at Avonmouth and Portishead are a step in this direction, and cannot fail, if well worked, to command a large share of the business of the Western world. If I am right, then for peaceful, prosperous, contented Bristol there are even greater things in store than she has ever yet dreamed of in her commercial philosophy. Of course, a sketch of the Thames and its docks would be incomplete without a statement of the Legal Quays, Sufferance Wharves, and Private Warehouses now in existence. Few people are aware of their enormous extent, and it would be difficult to exaggerate the important part which they have played in the history of the port. There cannot be a doubt that the proprietors of these places have availed themselves to the fullest extent of the advantage which they enjoy, under the present state of the law, of being allowed free use of the dock-waters. Undermentioned is a list of them, and I may add that, with very few exceptions, all restrictions as to the goods which may be landed at some of these places have now been removed. _Legal Quays._ Fresh Wharf. Hammond’s. Cox’s Quay. Botolph Wharf. Nicholson’s Wharf. Custom House Quay. Brewer’s Quay. Chester’s Quay. Galley Quay. _Uptown Warehouses and Vaults._ Aire & Calder. Beer Lane Vaults. Bell’s Warehouse. Billiter Street Warehouse. Cooper’s Row Warehouse. Crown Diamond Warehouse and Vaults. Crutched Friars Warehouse. Cutler Street and New Street Warehouse. Dowgate Hill Vaults. East India Avenue Vaults. Fenchurch Street Warehouse. George Street Vaults. Globe Yard Warehouse. Gracechurch Street Vaults. Lingham’s Warehouse and Vaults. Metropolitan Warehouse and Vaults. Mint Street Warehouse. Monastery Warehouse. Monument Warehouse and Vaults. Priory Warehouse. Red Mead Lane Warehouse and Vaults. St. Dunstan’s Warehouse. St. Andrew’s Vaults. St. Olave’s. Savage Garden Vaults. Smith’s Warehouse. Thames Street Vaults. Tower Hill Vaults and Warehouse. Trinity Warehouse and Vaults. Water Lane.