Although many thousands know well the district of the Broads, yet to the bulk of people it is still a _terra incognita_. It is therefore necessary to give at least a brief description of the _locus in quo_. Taking one's stand at Great Yarmouth, with one's back to the sea and facing inland, one sees--or could in truth see if one ascended the lofty Nelson Monument--first the narrow and busy harbour which conveys the waters of all the rivers to the sea, then a great tidal lake known as Breydon Water, four or five miles long. From this one can ascend by vessel the greater river Yare, which for twenty miles of broad and sinuous course threads the marshes to Norwich. On the right is the Bure, commonly called the North River, which twists and turns for twenty-seven miles to Wroxham, and is navigable further yet to Coltishall and Aylsham. Tributary to this river are the Ant and the Thurne, giving access to the largest of the Broads. Southward of Breydon is the deep and clear Waveney, with Beccles twenty-three miles from the sea at Yarmouth, and a short cut to the sea by Oulton Broad and Lowestoft. [Illustration: The fisher's home, the Broads.] Broadenings of these waterways at many points have become, by the growth of reeds and accumulations of soil, lakes or Broads, more or less separate from the rivers, but in most cases having navigable access to them. The characteristic of the district is its extreme flatness and the consequent slight fall of the river-beds, the current being mainly tidal, with not much difference of level at that. Yet this flatness is not monotonous; for, in addition to the ever-varying and ever-pleasing cloudscapes seen to best advantage in flat regions, there are beauties on the marshes and river borders of no common order. The luxuriant growth of reeds around the lakes gives the feeling of utter seclusion from the madding crowd. The gay hues of flowering plants, altering with sunshine and shadow of clouds on the wind-swept marsh, the deep shades of groves, the clear and winding rivers, the dark-brown and high-peaked sails of the wherries with their graceful curve of leach, and the white sails of the yachts scattered here and there, now reflected in a glassy reach, and again seeming to thread the verdant marshes where no water is visible from one's standpoint; the kestrel hovering over the 'rand,' a jay hunting a reed-bed for nests and eggs, waterfowl of many kinds, the splash of fish in a quiet bay, a heron by a lilied dyke, and innumerable noticeable incidents of bird and insect life, make the hours too short which are spent on these singular waterways.