The sad bathing mishap at Woolacombe by which SIR WALTER and LADY FOSTER have lost one of their daughters is, unfortunately, only one of a series of bathing and boating fatalities that has made this month of August notorious. It is idle, almost, to point the moral, which is obvious enough. But youth laughs at prudence, and inexperience pays its annual tale of promising lives. Mere rashness, however, does not excuse the drowning of the five young women in Lake Derwentwater by the upsetting of a boat that should only have held six and was allowed to carry eight. The immediate cause of the upset was that one of the occupants changed his seat. Craft that are so frail ought not to be allowed to be used either for six or for any number on waters so dangerous as the deep lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland, with their chilling currents. But, again, it is of little avail to moralize, and the only really practical advice that can be given is that none should use small boats who cannot swim.