DURING the past week ending 16th December, 49 wrecks have been reported—making a total for the present year of 3,208.—Shipping Gazette.

Such is the brief but forcible record which has caught our eye as we were going to press, of the sad disasters at sea which have taken place —as far as is known—during the storms of the past year. The record, though brief, tells of hundreds of women and children who have been made widows and orphans, and of the homes that have been for ever rendered desolate by the storms of the year.

But, fortunately, as we have shown on page 9, as well as death and despair, there has also been heroism to make many of these scenes often memorable. It is only at such times that the nobility of nature, the power of self-sacrifice, the defiance of death, which are latent in the humblest of our kind, come vividly into light.

During the gales of October; and November last, rough, unkempt men, with wives and children of their own to provide for, were ever ready, and even eager, when the vessels were on the rocks, and the waves were breaking them in pieces, to leap into the life-boats of the Institution, and rush through a wall of tumbling surf, in which it seemed impossible, in many cases, for anything put together by human hands to live. But the life-boats did succeed—and 444 living persons placed in imminent danger testify to the value of the " boat of mercy." Christian men and women! shall we plead in vain For the helpless victims on the fearful main ? Give of your abundance, valued lives to save, From the sinking vessel—from the ocean-grave!.