Once a year there is what is called an Ocean Match--that is, a match from Lowestoft to Harwich--on the Saturday before the regatta of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club. This is looked upon as a great adventure by the river boats, which tackle the sea under the cloud of canvas which is enough on the rivers. The trip to Harwich and back, and the excitement of bringing up in wide water, after the safety of a grassy margin, furnish food for many tales for the rest of the year. The _crux_ of the thing is the passage round the bleak Orfordness, where the tidal race raises a cruel sea if there is any wind; the great mainsails with their long booms cannot easily be reefed under way. One necessary rule upon these rivers sometimes causes trouble to strangers who are unaware of it. In the narrow reaches it is almost impossible to pass a boat to leeward, so if the overtaking boat can but get a few inches of her bowsprit overlapping to windward of the slower boat, the latter must give way and let the other pass to windward of her. Visitors often get nervous when they see a wherry bearing down upon them, but there is no occasion for them to do so. If the boat-sailer observes the rule of the road, he may be sure that the wherryman will do so. The latter are a very civil and obliging class of men, taking a keen interest in the doings of smaller craft and yachts. It is usual, however, for the yachtsman to remember that he is on pleasure bent and the wherryman on business, and he therefore gives way sometimes when not compelled to do so, to save the wherryman from having to put his craft about. In return the wherryman will often, when tacking, keep his craft shooting in stays to let a yacht beat past him. The wherries are so long and take up so much of the river when beating to windward that it is often very difficult to pass them at all unless they make this concession. The rowing boats which are hired by inexperienced people in great numbers at Oulton Broad are great sources of danger. The occupants generally go the wrong side of a sailing boat, and it is a wonder that accidents do not more often occur. Another source of difficulty are the anglers, who are very fond of mooring off the windward bank (where there is a quiet 'lee') well out in the channel, and perhaps at a 'scant' corner--that is, where the next reach being to windward the sailing vessels hug the corner as closely as possible in order to get a good shoot into the next reach and so save a tack. It does not do, however, to hug the corner too closely, as if it is at all shallow the way of the boat is deadened, though she may not actually touch the mud. The 'putty,' as the black soft mud of the river bottom is locally termed, plays an important part in sailing on Norfolk rivers. It serves sometimes to help a vessel to windward. Thus a wherry might not be able to hug the weather shore or to lay close enough to sail along the middle of a reach, but if she drops to the