THERE are doubtless few persons that reside on, or have visited, our coasts who have not frequently watched with interest the picturesque groups of fishermen and other boatmen hauling up their boats, and observed the contrivances by which that often laborious operation is made more easy of accomplishment—varying according to the size of the boat, the character of the beach, or mere local custom.

At one place, as at Deal or Hastings, with their steep shingle beaches, large boats, and numerous bodies of boatmen, will be seen the long row of powerful capstans, by the aid of which the large decked or halfdecked smack, hovelling boat, or trawler, is hauled up with comparative ease, yet seemingly reluctant to leave her native element, in which her weight is nothing, and in which she lives and moves; to hibernate, as it were, for a time with suspended life and animation, motionless on the land. There, also, it will have been observed that long flat boards of hard wood, with their upper surface greased, are placed under the boats when hauling up or launching, so as to reduce as much as possible the friction as they are dragged along.

At another place, as at Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft, with a flatter and sandy shore, their long and graceful yawls and smaller craft are, for the most part, hauled up by hand alone, the numerous boatmen being banded together in companies, and mutually assisting each other in the operation. Here the friction of hauling up is lessened by employing small portable machines consisting of a strong wooden frame with two or three iron rollers fixed in it, which is traversed by the boat's keel, she being held in an upright position by men at her sides.

Again, farther north, on the still flatter sands of Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, where the three-keeled and graceful coble abounds, the fishermen, often aided by their wives and daughters, will be seen lifting them on the little wooden trucks, on which they are wheeled along on the hard and level strand.

As the hauling up of a heavy boat is a laborious work, which men who have been many hours, perhaps all night, in their boats, would be very glad to dispense with— and since, as implied above, their mode of performing it is sometimes rather the result of custom than of scientific appliance—we think that we may usefully circulate, for the information of boatmen to whom they are at present unknown, drawings of the " roller-skids " used by the Norfolk and Suffolk boatmen in hauling up their larger boats, and which have been adopted by the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION, and found valuable auxiliaries in hauling up its life-boats, saying much labour, trouble, and expense.

There are three varieties of these skids used by the life-boats of the Institution— one is the simple wooden frame with either two or three rollers in it (Fig. 1), which is sufficient on hard ground, moveable short boards being placed under it transversely where the beach is soft. A second (Fig. 2) is similar, but having its sleepers attached to it beneath the rollers, which form is more convenient forplacing under a boat whilst she is still in the water. Much iabour is saved by hauling a heavy boat on the rollers whilst she is still partly water- Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

borne, and it is awkward to place a detached board under a skid in the water, especially when the boat has much motion from the surf. A skid of this description can, by means of two short lines attached to it, as shown in the figure, be readily hauled under the stem or sternpost of a boat by two men or lads, one dragging by each line. These lines should be of Manilla rope, which will float, and thus indicate the position of the skid when under water. Two-inch rope will be found a convenient size.

A third variety (Fig. 3) is a shorter skid, similar to the above, fitted to turn on a pivot-bolt fixed in a flat piece of wood, thus forming a portable turn-table, on which a boat, when hauled over it, can be turned round with very small power in any direction.

The life-boats of the Institution are supplied with one of these turn-tables, with two of the second variety, or water-skids, for use in the water, and with two of the plain skids with detached sleepers. A less number would, however, be sufficient for ordinary use, unless for very large and heavy boats; and we strongly recommend them to the attention of the boatmen on those parts of the coast'where they are not already employed.