SOTJTHPORT, LAKCASHIKE.—Shortly before 12 o'clock on the night of the 26th January, during a heavy gale from the W.N.W., rockets were fired, and a bright light was shown by a vessel in distress.

With the utmost speed the crew of the Eliza Ferriley Life-boat were summoned, horses were obtained, and efforts made to launch the boat, but owing to the darkness and the violence of the wind, which drove the sea to a fearful height and dashed the spray in all directions, this was a work of considerable difficulty.

The six horses harnessed to the carriage were unable to get it into the angry sea, and refused to go sufficiently deep to permit of a launch; the crew also lent their aid, but all to no purpose. The men, besides being wet to the skin and shivering with cold, had to stand the fury of two or three terrific storms of hail.

In response to the lights sent up by the vessel, the coxswain of the Life-boat fired four rockets. Additional horses having been obtained, the Life-boat was eventually got afloat, and proceeded on her mission of mercy. Notwithstanding the fatigue of the early part of the night, the Lifeboatmen worked with a will, forgetting all their difficulties in the one desire to rescue those in distress. The wind was by this time terrific in its fury, and some of the gusts were of such fearful violence that they almost overturned the boat.

She behaved splendidly, and after the crew had worked until they were almost exhausted, the anchor was cast. At about a quarter past 12 the boat again headed for the ship, which was high and dry on the Horse Bank, and as the sea had gone down considerably with the abatement of the wind, the endeavours to pull to the bank were successful; the shipwrecked men made for the Life-boat^ and were taken on board. The boat at once made for the shore, her arrival being anxiously waited for by thousands of people who thronged the promenade and pier, and who greeted the crew with cheer after cheer. The stranded vessel proved to be the Norwegian barque Sjornstjerna Bjdrnson, bound from South Carolina for Liverpool with a cargo of cotton and phosphor guano, having on board a crew of 10 men and a pilot..