WE have in previous numbers of the Life-boat Journal given accounts of the Life-saving Institutions of France and Germany, and have referred to those in other maritime countries of Europe. We feel sure that equal interest will be felt in a description of the means provided for the protection of human life from ship- wreck on the shores of that land, first peopled by Englishmen, the greatness and prosperity of which, born of British energy, enterprise, and love of liberty, ought to afford us the same pride and satisfaction that is felt by a parent in the progress and success of a son, even if in course of time it should eclipse his own.

A further reason why we should take especial interest in the life-saving service of the United States arises from the circumstance that, consequent on our extensive trade with that country - amounting to more than sixty millions sterling of goods sent from it to Britain every year—a large proportion of the ships and crews which are saved through its instrumentality are British.

Before giving a description of that service, some important distinctions be- tween it and our own should be noted.

The first distinction to which we will refer is, that whereas the Life-boat establishments in this country are solely supported by voluntary contributions, and the Rocket Life-saving Apparatus only is provided by the Government and worked by the Coastguard; on the contrary, the whole, or nearly the whole, service of life-saving is, we believe, provided for in the United States by annual money appropriations from Congress.

Secondly, whilst we have only our sea-coast to protect, they have, besides their immense Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the very extensive shores of their inland seas, the great American lakes, on which many of their life-saving stations are placed.

Thirdly, the coasts of the United States where wrecks most frequently occur, notably those of New Jersey, Long Island, and Massachusetts, are desolate and far removed from human habitations, which necessitates the special and constant employment of men to look out for vessels in distress and work the boats and apparatus, and the provision of dwellings for them, together with houses of refuge to shelter and succour shipwrecked persons; whereas on the coasts of the United Kingdom, which are more thickly populated, the fishermen and other coast boatmen are utilized to man the Life-boats and assist the Coastguard to work the rocket apparatus, living in their own dwellings and being paid for their aid only when required, with the exception of the coxswains of the Life-boats, who have, in addition, a small salary.

In the year 1848 the nucleus of the present Life-saving Service in the United States was formed by the Government erecting a few rude refuge-bats on the coast of New Jersey, which were supplemented by small appropriations, from time to time, until Long Island was likewise similarly provided.

There was, however, no organised system, but rudimentary Life-boats or Surf-boats, and other life-saving appliances were provided, and volunteers from among the local fishermen, or other boatmen, were relied on to use them on the occurrence of shipwrecks.

In the year 1871, however, under the present General Superintendent of the Life-saving Service, Mr. SUMNER J. KIMBALL, its entire reorganisation was effected, and the existing system introduced; and we find there were in December 1878, the Report of which year we have before I us, 196 Life-saving stations on the sea and lake coasts, with retained and paid crews, frequently practised in the management of their boats and apparatus, and inspected by Government officers attached to the service. Only a portion of the above stations, however, are provided with Surf-boats, and a still smaller number with Life-boats, analogous to those in this country, which relieve them- selves of water shipped or seas breaking over them, and self-right if upset, which boats are said to be too heavy to be worked on the flat shores of the Atlantic coast, with their sparse population; and their use is, we believe, confined, or nearly so, to a few stations, chiefly on the lakes and on the Pacific coast.

The coasts are divided into 12 districts, as follows:— Stations.

1st Coasts of Maine and New Hampshire 7

2nd. Coast of Massachusetts .... 15

3rd. Coasts of Rhode Island and Long Island 38

4th. Coast of New Jersey 41

5th. „ Cape Henlopen to Cape Charles 11

6th. „ Cape Henry to Cape Fear . 25

Carried forward . . . .137 Stations.

Brought forward. . .. 137   

7th. Coast of Eastern Coast of Florida Gulf Coast (Texas) . . .. 6 

8 8th. Lakes Erie and Ontario ....9 

9th. Lakes Huron and Superior...13

10th. Lake Michigan ...18 

11th. Pacific Coast ...8

Total 196

Of the above stations, the five on the coast of Florida, are houses of refuge only, without apparatus or boats.

As above stated, all the Life-saving establishments are regularly inspected by Government officers, for which duty the following staff was appointed in conformity with the Act of Congress, approved June 18th, 1878.

A General Superintendent.

An'Assistant General Superintendent.

An Inspector of Life-Saving Stations (a Captain in the Revenue Marine).

Two Superintendents of the Construction of Life-Saving Stations (Captains of Revenue Marine).

An Assistant-Inspector to each District (all either Captains or Lieutenants of Revenne Marine).

Two Officers of the same Service on special Duty, one at Washington and one at New York City.

A District Superintendent to each District.

It will thus be seen that ample inspec- tion and superintendence are provided to secure all practicable efficiency.

A speciality, arising from the peculiar character of the service, should be noticed, viz.: That during the finer seasons of the year the stations are closed, and the crews, surf-men as they are called, are dismissed.

During the stormy months the stations are reopened, and the crews again enrolled, and the period of employment varies, for the most part, from four to six months.

As an indication of the extent of the services performed, we select the following from the statistics contained in the Report for 1877-8:

Disasters to vessels, 171.

On board them, 1,557 persons.

Lives saved, 1,331. '

Lives lost, 226.

Of those lost, 98 perished in the U.S. steamer.Huron, and 85 in the steam- ship Metropolis, the former being lost during the season when the adjacent stations were dosed, and the latter be- tween two stations which were so distant apart as to greatly hinder successful ope- rations.

From November, 1871 (date of introduction of the present system), to close of the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1878, there were:— Total disasters, 578.

„ Persons on board, 6,287.

„ Persons saved, 5,981.

„ lives lost, 306.

„ Persons sheltered, 1,382.

„ Number of days' shelter afforded, 3,716.

Many noble services are recorded in the Report, not only by the Life-boats, but by the light Surf-boats, which, although they are liable to be swamped, and require baling like ordinary open boats, yet appear to be well adapted for the service for which they are provided, and to be admirably managed by their hardy and experienced crews, whose lives are spent on the coast, and who have from their boyhood been accustomed to manage boats in a surf. They are very light, and are kept on light transporting- carriages, on which they can be drawn for considerable distances along the shore by the few men who form their crews.

In one respect the Life-boat Service in the United States has an advantage over our own, in that the men being permanently employed during the open seasons are accustomed to act together, and are more frequently afloat both for practice and on service than at the greater number of our own Life-boat stations, where the boats are manned by volunteers from the local boatmen, and are only employed on the occasions when their services are required.

In Scribner's Monthly magazine for Jan. last, published at New York, and to be had of Messrs. F. "Warne & Co., London (price Is.), will be found a very graphic and interesting account of the United States Life-saving Service, with a series of excellent illustrations, from which latter a clear idea of the general character of the two classes of boat in use, and of the station-houses, &c., are to be obtained. It will also be seen that the cork life-belts worn by the boat- men, are of the plan first designed by Rear-Admiral WARD, its Chief Life-boat Inspector, for the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION in the year 1854.

In passing from the description of the Surf-boats and Life-boats to that of the apparatus for effecting communication with stranded vessels, the following re- mark occurs in the Report, with which we entirely coincide. "While the two classes of boats now in use in the service, termed, for the sake of distinction, the Surf-boat and Life-boat, are capable of marvellous work, as every season attests, no boat or other floating vehicle has yet been invented which has the power to cope with every condition of surf and sea." Life-Saving Apparatus:— As in France and other European countries, and in contradistinction to England, the United States Government have eschewed the rocket as a projectile for carrying a line to effect communica- tion with stranded vessels, and have adopted the system originated in this country by the late Captain MANBY, in the early part of this century, the line being attached to an iron shot discharged from a mortar or other ordnance of suit- able character. Until the year 1877 the ordinary mortar was used, bat in that year Lieut. D. A. LYLE, of the Ordnance Department, U.S. Army, was detailed to conduct a series of experiments, with a view to the production of a special gun which should combine to the greatest practicable extent the advantages of portability and length of range.

The mortar previously in general use in the service weighed with its bed 288 Ibs., and carried a shot of 24 Ibs. a maximum range of 421 yards. The result of the experiments conducted by Lieut. LYLB, which were eminently successful, was that two classes of ordnance were produced, adaptable to varying localities. The first, weighing witn its bed 202 Ibs., and carrying a shot of 17 Ibs., with the greatly increased maximum range of 695 yards. The second gun with its carriage weighs only 89 Ibs., and carries a shot of 13 Ibs. 477 yards, maxi- mum range.

These improved ordnance will no doubt be rapidly if not immediately substituted for the older Manby mortar, and time will no doubt show whether these improved and more portable guns or the rockets, as adopted by our own Board of Trade, are on the whole most effective.

An important factor in determining the length of range, and which is equally applicable to the rocket and shot projectile, is the line. Careful experiments have been made under the direction of Lieut. LYLE, and numerous statistical statements respecting them are given in this very complete Report, which, however, eres if we had space for them, would fail to interest the ordinary reader, but we cannot perceive that any decisive opinion is given as to the relative merits of different lines, which may possibly be open to still further improvement.

The selection as regards material would appear to be between Italian hemp and flax, and as regards manner of construc- tion between the ordinary twist (slackly twisted) and what is termed braided line.

The advantage appears, from the tables of results which are given, to be in favour of the braided flax line as a combination of relative strength, lightness, and flexibility.

We think it probable that the ordinary twist is the best mode of construction for Italian hemp, and the braid for flax lines.

Another important point for consideration is the size of the line. It is manifest that the smaller the line the longer will be the range of the projectile; but, on the other hand, the weaker will be the line and the less power will the haulers of it have, owing to insufficient grip, and below a certain size the line would also painfully cut the hand. For these reasons we question if a line of less than an inch in circumference could be safely depended on, and a line of that size can be carried either by a shot or rocket to as long a distance as the apparatus can be effectually used.

A specialty of the American Life-saving Apparatus is, that in addition to the usual travelling-buoy in which persons are drawn singly from a wreck to the shore, a metallic car or small covered boat is provided, by which ingenious contrivance several persons can be conveyed together.

The invention of the Life-car is claimed both by Captain DOUGLASS OTTINGER, of the Eevenue Marine, and Mr, JOSEPH FRANCIS, the inventor of the corrugated iron ship's Life-boat. It is used in lieu of the buoy and precisely in the same manner, but the passengers within it are completely protected from the sea and safe from injury even if the car were thrown completely over on the pas- sage. It will be readily conceived how great an advantage such a vehicle would b&ve over the traveller or sling-buoy in the case of emigrant or other passenger ships, where it might be of the utmost importance tp convey perhaps three or four hundred persons, many of them women and children, in as short a time as possible to the land. On one occasion, the wreck of the Ayrshire on the coast of New Jersey, 201 persons were rescued by it when no other means could have availed.

It should be mentioned that at the Life- saving stations, bedding and clothing for shipwrecked persons are kept in readiness .

in case of being required, and also medicine chests, restoratives, and all necessary appliances for restoration of the apparently drowned, exhausted, or frost-bitten amongst wrecked persons; whence it will be apparent that this invaluable State Department fulfils the functions under- ; taken severally in this country by the BOARD OF TRADE, the NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION, and the SHIPWRECKED MARINERS' and HUMANE SOCIETIES, and apparently in the most efficient manner.

It remains to be stated at what cost this invaluable work is done, which may be evidenced by the amount appropriated by Congress to the Service in the fiscal year terminating on the 30th June, 1878, which amount was $198,060, being, in round numbers, equivalent to about 40,000?. English money. In that amount the salaries of the District Superintendents are included, but not those of the Inspectors and higher officers.

"We cannot conclude this brief account | of the United States Life-saving Service without bidding it " God speed," and expressing the earnest hope that the only rivalry between the two great nations in the future ages may be the noble one of endeavouring to excel in every humane and good work for the happiness and welfare of our respective countries and the good of mankind.