WE have received within the last few weeks the Annual Report of the operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the year ended the 30th June, 1889, issued from the Government Printing Office at Washington, the Service being a branch of the United States Treasury in accordance with an Act of Congress approved June 18, 1878.

We find from the Report in question that at the close of the above-mentioned year there were 225 life-saving stations, 172 being on the Atlantic coast, 45 on the lakes, seven on the Pacific, and one at the Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky.

This total gives, therefore, an increase of three stations as compared with the previous year; viz., two on the Atlantic coast and one on the lakes.

During the year there had been 378 disasters to vessels coming within the field of station operations, this number being 33 less than in the previous twelve months.

There were 3,106 persons on board these vessels, of whom 38 were lost. The number of vessels totally lost was 63, being a decrease of eight as compared with the previous year. In addition there were, during the year reported on, 149 disasters to smaller craft, such as sail-boats, row-boats, &c., which had 316 persons on board, only one of whom was lost. The total number of persons suc- coured at the stations was 787.

Besides the lives saved from vessels, the life-saving crews were instrumental in rescuing 24 persons who had fallen from wharves, &c., and would, had it not been for the prompt aid given, have pro- bably perished.

In pursuance of the policy of the Service a careful investigation was held in the eleven cases where life was lost, re- sulting in proving that the attending circumstances were such that none of the fatalities within the scope of the Service could possibly have been averted by the life-saving crews, who, as on former occa- sions, were stated to have discharged their duties gallantly and well.

The fact that there had been a larger number of lives lost, in proportion to the number of persons on board the vessels involved, than there had been for many years past, was due to the frequent and violent gales, especially on the Virginia and North Carolina coasts, a region of low and continuous beaches exposed to  the full sweep and fury of the Atlantic Ocean.

There had, however, been a marked in- crease as compared with the records of previous years in the amount of assistance rendered in saving vessels and property, which in great measure accounts for the comparatively small number of vessels totally lost within the domain of Service operations.

Another of the Life-Saving Stations on Lake Ontario had been placed in tele- phonic communication with the Custom House at Woodville, New York, a distance of three and a quarter miles, thereby estab- lishing connection with the telephone and telegraphic facilities of the vicinity, and enabling the Life-saving crew to receive promptly tidings of wrecks and other casualties occurring beyond the station patrol limits. All the stations from Mon- tank Point to Coney Island Coast of Long Island, are now being connected by tele- phone, and it is believed that the system, when completed, will prove in many ways of signal advantage to the Service.