The identification and interpretation of the distributions implicit in the concepts of hinterland and foreland are, together with an appraisal of the organization of maritime transport, the main requirements of a functional approach to seaport studies. The detail and accuracy with which these distributions have been portrayed have varied greatly and this is mainly related to the nature of the traffic flow statistics. A consideration of the source materials for U.K. ports suggests that any precise enquiry must be based largely on the unpublished documents of day-to-day port operation. On this evidence the hinterland of the Tyne is identified as an aggregate of individual sites and comprising a range of commodity-group hinterlands. Three broad zones of the collective hinterland are distinguished and a measure of importance is attached to them. Forelands are elucidated by an analysis of maritime traffic at the level of the individual port and of cargo in terms of trading areas. For both hinterland and foreland the significance of the distributions and their main determinants are discussed. The distinctive symbiotic relationship of hinterland and foreland is demonstrated and it is suggested that, in the present period of technological revolution in maritime transport and consequent port rationalization, precise hinterland and foreland investigations may contribute to regional and national planning. ANY GEOGRAPHICAL study which seeks to place a seaport in its functional context involves the identification, portrayal and interpretation of the economic distributions implicit in the illdefined concepts of hinterland and foreland. As a point of transference upon a trade route, the character and status of a port are influenced primarily by: (i) the range and vigour of economic activities, occurring at tide-water and inland locations, which available installations and transport enable the port to serve most effectively; (ii) the trade and traffic of the aggregate of domestic and overseas ports with which the port has inter-relations; (iii) the organization of maritime transport which provides the intervening link. The aggregate of tide-water and inland locations demonstrated statistically and/or cartographically has long been generalized as the hinterland of a port and is the sphere in which the most widespread geographical enquiry has occurred. Following M. Amphoux (I949, I950), the counterpart of hinterland, the aggregate of areas and ports with which a given port has trade relations, has become known as the foreland. Hinterland and foreland exist in a symbiotic relationship, the reciprocal changes being transmitted through the mechanism of maritime transport. It follows that modification within any one of the three components of the trade route, hinterland, foreland and sea link, may be expected to evoke change throughout (Elliott, I966). The functional pattern as it relates to any port may be envisaged as the sum of a large number of varied traces (each being the trade route of a specific commodity) drawn in from the hinterland to a node at the port, interwoven and grouped by the organization of maritime transport and spreading in bands to be concentrated again at a port of entry before radiating individually through the foreland area. Thus, in general terms, the hinterland of one port is concomitantly the foreland of another port or of several other ports. However, for any specific port, this is not a uni-directional flow pattern, and hinterland and foreland components must be evaluated for both export and import traffic.