It is anticipated that not the least inte- resting and instructive page of our Journal will be that which is devoted to Corres- pondence. Knowledge gained by expe- rience and personal observation is always valuable, and especially is it so on all matters connected with the management of ships and boats at sea. That element is so liable to constant change, and is subjected to the action of so many disturbing causes, especially in the shoal water around our coasts which life-boats have to encounter; as the force of the wind and its relative direction to the land or the tides,—the depth or shallowness of the water,—the roughness or smoothness of the ground,—the precipi- tous, shelving, or flat nature of the shore on which it breaks, &c., on which circum- stances depend the form, magnitude, and character of its waves; that many conflict- ing principles have to be encountered, which varying according to circumstances, may possibly require a corresponding variety of form, but certainly diversity of management, of those floating bodies which have to con- tend with them. Theoretical science can therefore only to a certain extent be made available; experience and skilful seaman- ship must do the rest.

The results of such experimental and prac- tical knowledge from different parts of the coast, we shall be glad to transfer to our pages for the benefit of others. Commu- nications, containing accounts of anything special in the form and equipment of the boats adopted at different localities,—also of the modes of launching from, and land- ing on, a beach in bad weather, and of boarding a wreck on. an off-lying bank, might be useful and interesting to many of our readers.

Again, any suggestions for improvement in boats or their fittings,—as air-cases for life-boats or ordinary boats,—life-belts, life- buoys, fishermen's dresses, &c. ; and parti- cularly well-authenticated detailed accounts of cases of shipwreck and of saving or at- tempting to save life,—for it must never be forgotten that a failure is often more instruc- tive than a successful attempt,—and it is for that special reason the Report of the Northumberland Committee contains a list of sixteen of the most noted accidents to life-boats. Many other cases doubtless have occurred, of which we have no record, but which would form a valuable contribution to our Journal. Instances, too, of the ad- vantage of life-boats or life-apparatus, or the loss arising from want of them,—of the benefit of trained and organized crews,—or of particular modes of management, in taking a crew from a wreck, &c., which practical men on the several coasts of the kingdom can only properly describe. Such commu- nications we freely invite.