to Gravesend about one hundred and twenty miles, and varying from two to twenty-five miles in width, has a beach which is the commencement of an extraordinary formation. This formation is a strip of barren sand, from a quarter of a mile to five miles wide, almost entirely unpeopled, separated by a file of bays from the mainland, which, commencing with Long Island, extends along the Atlantic coast to Cape Fear, North Carolina, a distance of six hundred miles. It is broadly cleft three times in its course southward, by the waters of New York, Delaware, and Chesapeake Bays. The bays which divide it longitudinally from the mainland are narrow till they reach North Carolina, where they spread out into Albemarle and Pamplico Sounds, sinking thence to Cape Fear into swamps and lagoons. A slow and perpetual mutation, varied at times by convulsive alterations, is the law of this long chain of beach. At varying distances it is traversed by narrow inlets, pierced by the ocean, which march steadily downward, year after year, under the action of the north and east winds, the sand closing up behind them, or are arrested or closed by the operation of some violent storm, which may at the same time cleave the beach across with a new inlet. This march of inlets threatens the safety of the stations, and frequently compels their removal. They are menaced also by the ocean, between which and the beach there is unceasing war. At times the beach makes a steady annual advance upon the sea, and then for years is driven back by the onset of the waters. Off shore, along its whole extent, lurk perilous shoals and platoons of submarine bars, for ever changing position, over which in tempests the squadrons of breakers mount and tumble with tremendous uproar. Gradually curving in from Montauk, this stretch of unstable beaches bends out again four hundred miles below to form the dreaded cape of Hatteras, from which point the coast trends inward to the boundary of Florida. Four great marts-New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Norfolk-bring the ocean paths of commerce close upon this line of beach, and here tempest hunts the ships. The record of the Long Island and New Jersey beaches is terrible. . The traveler upon them sees everywhere, protruding from the sands, the skeletons of wrecks, and their old-time story is only of innumerable drowned crews. Here were the earliest and the greatest successes of the Life-saving Service, whose programme devoted this entire line of beach to complete life-saving stations. There are 41 of these in the Fourth Life-saving District, embracing the New Jersey coast; 11 in the Fifth Life-saving District, embracing the coast of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia as far as Cape Charles; and 25 in the Sixth Life-saving District, embracing the coast of Virginia from Cape Henry, and of North Carolina to Cape Fear. Below Cape Fear, fewer ports, a blander latitude, and the absence of most other vessels than coasters,

have thus far made life-saving stations unnecessary for about three hundred miles, when the coast, receding for this distance, again swells out seaward at Florida. The programme of the service was here shaped to new conditions. This coast, closely approached by vessels plying between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, is a coral formation, five hundred miles in extent, arid and desolate to the last degree, with steep shores and a depth of water which enables vessels, when driven in by the gales and tornadoes of the stormy season, to come up almost high and dry, rendering comparatively easy the escape of their crews, whose chief liability, under these circumstances, is to perish from hunger and thirst. The stations adopted for this coast, therefore, were of the class called houses of refuge, severally inhabited by a keeper and his family, and stocked with provisions for the sustenance of persons cast ashore. There are five of these stations, located on the bulge of the coast where vessels are liable to be driven ashore, and comprised within the Seventh Life-saving District. Originally no stations were proposed for the Gulf coast, which is generally a low waste of sand or morass, with shoaling waters and regular soundings, more fatal to marine property than to life when visited by the southern hurricanes; but the recent increase of commerce at Galveston, and the damage wrought to shipping by the prevailing northers on the coast of Texas, have led to the projection of six life-saving stations for that locality at points marked by recurrent disaster, and embraced by the Eighth Life-saving District. Five of these are complete life-saving stations, and one belongs to the class designated as life-boat stations-a class reserved for populous localities where volunteer crews can be readily collected, and the depth of water enables the English life-boat to be used. The class of life-boat stations (established, it may be said, somewhat experimentally, and with the view of substituting for them complete life-saving stations if, after trial, their protection to life should be found inadequate) belongs particularly to the Lakes and the Pacific coast. The Lakes present marked characteristics. They are a group of enormous inland seas, with 2,500 miles of American coast line, generally regular shores, without many islands, and closed by ice to navigation for nearly six months in the year. They have few natural harbors, and the entrances to most of these are narrow, and increased by the contrivance of double piers jutting out considerable distances. Their principal danger to navigation is involved in their lack of searoom, which leads vessels to endeavor in storms to run for shelter into the harbors; and the entrances to these being narrow, sels are apt to miss them, and be swept upon the beach. They are also subject to sudden and violent gales, which pile up seas so tremendous as to sweep anchored vessels fore and aft, often forcing their crews into the rigging,

ves

or causing the craft to founder. At such times, in the case of vessels beached, the lifeboat, capable of being at once let down into the water between the piers, at the inner edge of one of which the station is located, can readily slip out to the relief of their crews, and, being very powerful and able to sustain the shock of the rudest seas, can also in the other instance be taken out to vessels laboring in distress at long distances from shore. The Ninth Life-saving District, embracing Lakes Erie and Ontario, has six life-boat stations, the remaining three being complete life-saving stations. Of the thirteen stations of the Tenth Life-saving District, embracing Lakes Huron and Superior, three are life-boat stations; and the Eleventh Life-saving District, embracing Lake Michigan, has thirteen, with five complete life-saving stations. At several of the complete stations on the Lakes, however, there are life-boats as well as surf-boats. The eight stations at different points of the Pacific coast, from Washington Territory to California, comprising the Twelfth Life-saving District, are life-boat stations, this class having been dictated by the nature of the coast, which is very regular, has few harbors, shores remarkably bold, a mild and uniform climate, and only at times, and rarely unexpected, violent storms. At these times, a few prominent headlands or river entrances may occasion disaster to vessels, whose crews can be saved by the lifeboat.

The service, thus organized into twelve districts, belongs by its relation to commerce to the Treasury Department. It is under the immediate charge of a General Superintendent (Mr. S. I. Kimball), aided by an Assistant General Superintendent (Mr. W. D. O'Connor), their headquarters being in the Treasury at Washington. An officer of the Revenue Marine (Captain J. H. Merryman) occupies the position of Inspector of Life-saving Stations. Two officers of the Revenue Marine (Captain John McGowan and Captain J. H. Merryman) serve as Superintendents of Construction of Life-saving Stations, supervising all building and repairs, and the purchase of equipments for new stations. Their office is in New York. In each district an officer of the Revenue Marine is stationed as Assistant Inspector, his function being to see that the stations and their equipments are in proper condition, and the crews proficient in the use of the life-saving apparatus. The districts are severally in the charge of a Superintendent. For the Rhode Island portion of the Third District there is an Assistant Superintendent who resides at Block Island. Each Superintendent is appointed after examination, and is required to be a habitant of the region, familiar with the coast, and with the action of surf and the use of surf-boats and other life-saving apparatus. He is responsible for the condition and conduct of his district, makes requisition upon the management for all repairs, outfits, and sup

plies therein necessary, pays the crews, keeps the accounts, and conducts the correspondence. He nominates the Keepers of his district, who are subject to an examination by a Board composed of the local inspector, a surgeon of the Marine Hospital Service, and an accomplished surfman, and thrown out if not able-bodied experts. The Superintendents receive $1,000 per annum, excepting those of the Third and Fourth Districts, who each receive $1,500, their respective coasts being more extensive than the others. The Assistant Superintendent of the Third District has $500 per annum. Each station has a Keeper, the best that can be obtained from the athletic race of beachmen, a master of boat-craft and the art of surfing, and skilled in wreck operations. The profession of a surfman is entirely distinct from that of a sailor, being only acquired by coast fishermen and wreckers after years of experience in passing out and in through the surf, the knowledge of seamen being usually confined to the action of deep water. The Keeper selects his own crew, who are, however, subject to the decision of the Examining Board. He is by law an inspector of customs, having authority for the care of all stranded property, and against smuggling. He preserves inventories of all station property, and journalizes daily the life at the station, sending weekly transcripts of his journal to the General Superintendent for his information. He keeps the station and equipments in order, commands the crew, steers the boat to wrecks, conducts all the operations, and governs his station precincts. At complete life-saving stations they are required to reside constantly with their crews during the active season. At life-boat stations, where there are only volunteer crews, the Keepers must live in the neighborhood, keep sharp lookout for distressed vessels during thick weather, and summon their men upon occasions of need. At houses of refuge, the Keepers live with their families the year round, who after storms travel in both directions from the stations as far as possible, searching for persons possibly cast ashore. The compensation of Keepers is fixed at $400 per annum, severally. The crews of life-saving stations are six in number, and receive $40 per month during the active season. They are required to be hardy and skilled surfmen. They constantly patrol the beaches at night, with lanterns and nightsignals, on the watch for endangered vessels, and also watch the beach by day, especially in thick weather. This patrol is vigilantly maintained, as befits its importance; and the manner of its observance, including the names of the men, and their mutual meetings, is minutely recorded by the respective Keepers, and the records forwarded to the office of the General Superintendent, where they receive an examination which detects through discrepancy any evasion of the duty. The volunteer crews at the life-boat stations are groups of eight persons, besides the Keeper. They are regularly

enrolled, and are required to be on the watch for the signal for their assembly in thick or stormy weather. They receive $3 per man for each day devoted to drill and exercise, and $10 per man for each occasion of service at

wrecks.

The scheme of the service places the long chain of complete life-saving stations on the Atlantic beaches within an average distance of five miles of each other, the object being to maintain the intercommunication of patrol, and effect the speedy assembling of several crews in case of the occurrence of a wreck requiring multiplied effort. The complete life-saving stations are generally situated just behind the beach, among the low sand-hills common to such localities. They are typically two-story houses, mainly built of tongued and grooved pine, with gable roofs, covered with cypress or cedar shingles, and strong shutters to the windows, and are securely bolted to a foundation of cedar or locust posts, sunk in trenches four feet deep. Their architecture is of the pointed order, somewhat in the chalet style, with heavy projecting eaves and a small open observatory or lookout deck, on the peak of the roof, from which spires a flagstaff. The walls of the houses are painted drab, with darker color for the door and window trimmings, and the roofs dark red. Over the door is a tablet with the inscription "U. S. LIFE-SAVING STATION." The appearance of the houses is tasty and picturesque. Their dimensions are from 18 to 20 feet wide by 40 feet long; the later houses are 20 by 45. Below they contain two rooms. One of these is the boat-room, about 10 feet high, occupying over two thirds of the ground-floor space, or measuring about 16 by 30 feet, and opening by a broad double-leaf door into the weather. In this are stored the boats, life-car, wreck-gun, and most of the apparatus. The other room, about 8 feet high, and measuring about 12 by 16 feet, is the general living-room of the crew. The second story contains three rooms, one for the storage of the lighter apparatus, one for the sleeping-room of the keeper, and one for that of the men; both of these furnished with cot-beds in sufficient number for the accommodation also of the occasional guests sent to the stations by shipwreck. At stations where there is communication with the Signal Service, there is an additional room in the upper story for the accommodation of the signal officer. The later and better built stations have interior walls of lath and plaster, and are furnished outside with cisterns for the collection of rainwater. The lack of fresh water on the beaches is one of the hardships of station-life.

The life-boat stations are usually 24 feet high from base to peak, 42 feet long by 22 feet wide, exterior measurements, and contain a loft above, and a room below 12 feet high, 20 feet wide, and 40 feet long, for the accommodation of the life-boat and its gear. They are built of matched and grooved pine, with gable roofs

The houses of refuge are two-story structures, of a style common at the South, with broad gabled roofs, an ample veranda 8 feet wide on three sides of the structure, and large chimneys in the rear, built outside of the wall. The houses are of pine, raised about six feet from the ground on light wood posts, and the roofs shingled with cypress. Instead of glass, the windows are fitted with wire-gauze mosquito netting. The houses are about 37 feet long by 15 feet wide, not including the veranda space. The upper story is a loft, the lower has three apartments. Each house has capacity for succoring twenty-five persons, with provisions to feed that number for ten days. A boat-house is provided for each station, furnished with a galvanized iron boat with sculls. A complete life-saving station, fully equipped, costs about $5,000; a life-boat station about $4,500; and a house of refuge about $3,000.

The stations are fully equipped with all minor appurtenances apposite to their purpose, such as anchors, grapnels, axes, shovels, boat-hooks, and wreckers' materials and implements generally; and those which are inhabited are also furnished with stoves, cot-beds, mattresses, blankets, and the utensils requisite for rude housekeeping. The crews find their own provisions. The stations are also provided with all the most approved appliances for saving life from wrecks. First among these is the sixoared surf-boat, the light weight and draught of which make it the only boat yet found suitable for service for the flat beaches and shoaling water of the Atlantic and Gulf coast. Though not invariably of the same model, it is usually of cedar, with white-oak frames, without keel, varying in dimensions, but gen

erally from 25 to 27 feet long, from 5 to 6 feet wide, and from 2 feet 3 inches to 2 feet 6 inches in least depth. It has commonly air-cases at the ends and along the interior sides under the thwarts, which make it insubmergible, and is fitted with cork fenders running along the outer sides to protect it against collision with hulls or wreckage. Its weight is from 700 to 1,000 pounds. It is guided by a long steering oar, the steersman standing in the stern. In the hands of the skilled surfmen of our coasts, it

be launched directly into it, the English lifeboat is in general use. This wonderful contrivance, the result of a century of repeated effort, is of massive strength and stability. It is built of double diagonals of mahogany. The size generally in use in this country is about 27 feet in length, a little over 7 feet broad, 3 feet 8 inches deep, carrying eight oars, doublebanked, and weighing when empty 4,000 pounds. It is self-righting and self-bailing. In other words, when thrown over, which is difficult to be done, by a heavy sea, it instantly rights and empties. The first of these two extraordinary characteristics, to which a great number of advantages are sacrificed, is effected by a ponderous false keel of iron, which gives the lower part of the boat a constant determination toward the water, while an equal determination from the water is maintained for the upper portion of the boat by a distribution of air-cases at the sides and ends, scientifically proportioned. The self-bailing characteristic. is effected by a deck adjusted with reference to the draught of the boat, so that, whatever be the load of the latter, the deck is above the load-line; and being fitted with tubes extending vertically down through the bottom of the boat, it follows that whatever water the boat takes on board falls through the tubes, in obedience to the law which compels fluids to seek their level, and leaves the deck free. The delivery tubes are furnished with self-acting valves, opening to the downward pressure of the water shipped by the boat, and shutting to the pressure of the jets from below. Cork ballast adds by its weight to the stability of the boat, and augments its buoyancy in case the boat be stove. Two masts, made detachable, are provided, fitted with two low lug-sails and a jib. The boat is wellnigh invulnerable, but its great weight and draught, and the resistance its high bows offer to the wind, often make its towage by steam-tug necessary to enable it to reach a wreck at a distance. Particular attention is given to the stowage of its ropes, lines, anchors, and other articles carried in life-boats, these being arranged by a strict method with reference to economy of space and facility of use, and always kept on board, ready for service, lest any of them should be forgotten in the excitement of a sudden summons for wreck duty. Carriages of a peculiar construction are provided in England for the transportation and launching of these boats, together with skids and rollers for returning them to their carriages; but at present in this country they are let down by the trap or inclined platform directly into the water, the station being always at the water's edge. The surf-boats are provided with carriages, by which they are hauled from the stations abreast of wrecks. They are four-wheeled, with bed-pieces between each pair of wheels, on which the boat rests, and a long bar or reach connecting the front and back wheels, made separable half-way to enable the boat to be lowered to the ground by withdraw