WE believe that a life-belt, for an adult person of average size, ought to have, at the least, buoyant power equal to 20 Ibs., and as much more as can conveniently be obtained.

Having decided on the amount of buoyancy, the questions next arise as to the fittest material to be employed, and the best shape to be adopted.

The only two descriptions of material worth notice are the rival ones of cork and of Macintosh cloth inflated with air. Horsehair and dried rushes have ! each been employed, but they are | untrustworthy. ( The advantages of cork as a material for life-belts are its durability, and its non-liability to injury from puncture, fracture, or damp, so that it will bear the rough usage of ordinary boat work. By being divided into many narrow pieces, it can also be made more flexible and yielding to the body of the wearer than an inflated belt.

The only disadvantage of a cork belt is, that from its greater weight it requires to be of larger size than an inflated belt, and as it must always retain its full size, it cannot be stowed away in a small compass when not in use. For a life-boatman's belt, how- ever, portability is not of much conse- quence, and the advantages of cork are so great in other respects, that that material has been selected by the National Life-boat Institution for the belts of its life-boats' crews.

These belts are, however, of a new construction, designed by the Inspec- tor to the Institution, Commander J.

R. Ward, R.N. They have much greater buoyancy than any kind of cork belt previously introduced, and have other important peculiarities.

About 800 of these belts have been supplied by the National Life-boat Institution to the crews of its life- boats and those of others during the last three years, and they have given universal satisfaction to those who have used them. A few have also been supplied to some of the vessels chartered by the Emigration Com- missioners..