during the recent gales rendered noble services in saving life from wrecks.

"The National Life-boat Institution has voted the crews of these life-boats nearly £100 for their valuable exertions during the recent storms. Last summer the society built a new house for the Lowestoft life-boat, at a cost of £158. "We append some particulars of the operations of the life-boats of the Royal National Life-boat Institution during the present year. It appears that these boats have been called into active operation on fifty-six different occasions, on various points of our coast. The result has been that one hundred and thirty-four lives have been saved off twentythree wrecks, besides the assisting of five vessels safely into port. On twenty-three occasions it happened that when the life-boats had put off, in reply to signals of distress, the vessels either got out of danger or their crews were rescued by other means. Again, crews assembled several times to give assistance, but were not required to put off to sea. For these several exertions the crews were paid nearly £600.

"Nearly all these services took place in stormy weather and heavy seas, and often in the dark hours of night, and yet, it is gratifying to add, not a single accident happened either to the boats or to the gallant fellows who had manned them. On these occasions, and at the quarterly periods of exercise, the life-boats of the society were manned probably by no less than four thousand persons. Such practical proofs as these of the immense value of the National Lifeboat Institution in a maritime country like ours, cannot possibly be overrated, and surely it has the highest claims on our support. The more we hear of its operations at various parts of the coast, the more we feel urged to press its claims on public notice.”

The society has stations all round our coasts, although not nearly so many as could be desired, and the good done is incalculable.

One of the great objects to be attained in cases of wrecks is, to pass a line between the wreck and the shore by means of which a stout rope may be drawn to or from the vessel and connected with it, by which many, sometimes all of those on board, may be saved. The great difficulty is to get the line thrown on board, and in order to overcome this several machines have been invented by which a line may be thrown. One of those machines is a small cannon from which the end of the line is shot over the wreck. Another machine used for saving life is a large buoy or float, provided with ropes by means of which a drowning man may grasp and support himself until assistance arrives. This buoy is supplied with a blue light which can be fired by pulling a cord, so that, when it is dark, a bright glare guides those who are in search to the objects they desire to succour. A representation of this buoy is given in the annexed wood-cut.

It is one of the prominent features of the present age that men strive by every means to turn scientific knowledge to useful account. It is not enough that we should wonder at the discoveries of science, and expatiate on the wisdom and power of Him who made the universe. In these days we endeavour to press science into the service of art, and, while we admire the wisdom displayed in all that increasing knowledge unfolds to us, we adore the love that prompted our heavenly Father to put so much power and so many wonderful materials into the hand of man, for the express purpose of conducing to his temporal prosperity and happiness.

By careful study of the varied phenomena connected with the currents in the ocean and in the atmosphere, scientific men are now enabled with considerable certainty to foretell the coming of a storm, and even to point out its probable course. By ingenious appliance of the well-known agent electricity, we can instantly communicate our thoughts and our knowledge from one end of the kingdom to the other. By the union of these two powers, it is now proposed to telegraph to the lighthouses along our coast at what time a storm may be expected, and in what direction it will probably blow, so that, by means of preconcerted signal-lights ships nearing our ports may be warned of the coming danger and put in possession of information sufficient to enable them to avoid it. A central office is proposed, to which meteorological information should be telegraphed from all quarters, and from which the digested information could be transmitted to lighthouses and sea-ports.

Maury, the eminent and pious American philosoper, from whose admirable work, the "Physical Geography of the Sea," we have already quoted, gives his opinion on this subject, as follows:—

He holds that, though storms cannot be predicted in all cases, they may in many; and this by the establishment of a central office to which meteorological observations should be transmitted by telegraph from a wide circle of surrounding stations, and compared together. He points out that, taking a general view of the world, the coasts of Britain are peculiarly dangerous, for they seldom fail to present a leeshore to the sailor in any and every wind that blows. On the other hand, the geographical position of these islands is such as would enable them to give early and valuable warnings to countries eastward, of western storms.

Pre

dictions of weather founded on observations at any one point would exhibit uncertainty and confusion, but when derived from observations at many and distant points, instantaneously communicated and combined, order and sequence appear, and the progressive march of special storms can be traced. Hence a central meteorological office is in a vastly more favourable position for judging of the weather than any single ship, though steered by a scientific commander, amply provided with barometers and thermometers. To every ship, therefore, when it comes into the neighbourhood of our iron-bound shores, after its solitary voyage through the watery waste, it would be one of the greatest boons conceivable if each lighthouse should hang out a signal, intimating what Captain Maury well calls "the invisible dangers of the atmosphere," thereby indicating to the mariner from what quarter he may presently expect a storm to break forth, which coast will be dangerous, and which safe for him, to be found in the neighbourhood of. Had any such system been in operation when that magnificent Australian liner, the Royal Charter, with its hundreds of passengers, came in sight of our shores, after the long voyage, with its precious freight from the other side of the world, the dire calamity which ensued could never have occurred. That sad wreck (an account of which will be found in another part of this volume) shocked the public mind for a moment grievously, yet it is but a drop in the great aggregate of the nation's losses in the same manner, and from the same causes, as the public notifications of more than a thousand wrecks in the year testify.