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out once a quarter in picked rough weather
for exercise of the men, and for test of the
efficiency of all its tackling. For such exercise
in stormy weather, every man has had a
day's pay of five shillings, and for duty at
wrecks the payment has been ten shillings a
man per day, and a pound for night-work. Four
thousand stout men of the coast are enrolled as
members of the life-boat fleet, and have pulled
oars during the last year in its service. The
cost of managing is as little as it can be. But
the exertions made last year compelled a large
expenditure in excess of income. Great care is
taken, by a minute system of reports and frequent
inspection, to secure the constant readiness and
sustain perfectly the right equipment of each boat.

Except a little interest from funded capital,
and the subsidy from the Mercantile Marine
Fund of about two thousand a year, the Life-
boat Institution is obliged to look wholly to the
public for augmenting the life-boat fleet. But
it is to be remembered, also, that this kind
of expenditure does not represent all that
has been done; the central Institution often
grants its funds in aid of local efforts, and
of the life-boatmen's pay a thousand a year
collected from among their neighbours never enters
into the accounts of the society. The sympathy
of all hearts with the work also produces savings
that are, in fact, gifts, not represented on the
balance-sheet. A railway company, for example,
or a steam-packet company, is proud to convey
a life-boat to its destination free of charge.

About two years ago the Norfolk Shipwreck
Association voted itself into a branch of the
Life-boat Institution, and the additional strength
of the main body, in as far as it is due to this
transfer (represented as the addition of a
thousand pounds last year to the means already
detailed), does not, of course, correspond to an
additional provision for the saving of life on our
shores. There is no piece of English coast so
perilous as that of Norfolk.

The cost of a life-boat is not much under two
hundred pounds. It must be strong, very
strong in its breadth, buoyant, swift on a heavy
sea, constructed to discharge at once the water
that it ships, and to right itself when upset,
and it must also supply the greatest possible
amount of stowage room for passengers. The
ingenious carriage contrived for its run to the
sea and instant launching costs from sixty to
a hundred pounds, and the boat-house about
another hundred pounds. Every man of the
crew is supplied with a cork life-belt, which
he is bound to wear whenever he goes afloat
in the craft. The belts hang against the
walls of the boat-house, and the boat's equipment
is then kept always ready for immediate
use. This consists of an anchor and
cable, a twenty-five pound grapnel to retain the
boat for a while near a wreck, a boat's painter,
a set and a half of short fir oars, two steering
sweep-oars, two boat-hooks with lanyards, a
hand-grapnel with heaving-line, a sharp axe and
two small sharp hatchets, two life-buoys with
attached lines, short knotted life-lines, a boat
binnacle and spirit compass, oil, matches, a spy-
glass, a lantern, a fisherman's port-fire, hand-
rockets, a vessel of fresh water and a drinking
cup, some nautical sundries with a box of certain
tools, and a lamp kept trimmed. All these things
have to be kept in their right places in the boat
and always ready. The establishment of a life-
boat station having once been set up on the
coast, thirty pounds a year is the cost of its
maintenance.

Among the little publications of the institution
is a set of instructions for the recovery of
the apparently drowned, which cannot be too
widely diffused. They are founded upon
principles laid down by the late Doctor Marshall
Hall, and had been made the subject of extensive
inquiries by the Institution before they
were officially presented as the best practical
advice that science can afford. These rules are
easily remembered, easily acted upon, and there
is no person to whom the knowledge of them
may not, by some unhappy chance, become a
matter of the deepest consequence. So, here
is the substance of them:

Send for a doctor, blankets, and dry clothes,
but wait for nothing. Endeavour at once to
restore breathing and maintain warmth, and
persevere in the endeavour not for minutes but
for hours.

To restore breathing, clear the throat by
placing the body on the ground, face downwards,
with one arm under the forehead. Fluid
will escape by the mouth, the tongue will fall
and leave the windpipe open. Cleanse and wipe
the mouth. If breathing do not follow, or be
very faint, endeavour to excite it artificially. To
do this, first turn the body rapidly upon its side
and stimulate the nostrils with snuff or smelling-
salts, the throat with a feather. If that fail,
instantly replace the body on its face, setting a
folded coat under the chest to press upon it and
force out the air. Then turn the body gently
to one side and a little beyond, and briskly back
upon its face, keeping up these two movements
at the rate of about fifteen to the minute, now
and then varying the side. Aid the pressure of
the coat under the chest by brisk simultaneous
pressure with the hand upon the back between
the shoulder-blades.

Let the body never be turned on its back, and
let the open air come to it freely.

To maintain warmth, dry the body and wrap
it in a blanket, leaving, except in severe weather,
the face, neck, and chest, exposed.

After breathing has been restored, and not
until then, rub the limbs upwards; use hot
flannels, &c. Give first a teaspoonful of warm
water, afterwards small quantities of wine,
brandy-and-water, or coffee. Keep the patient
in bed, and encourage sleep.

Another of the publications of the society,
founded upon persevering inquiry among the
expert boat men on our coasts, gives clear directions
for the management of open boats in heavy
surf and broken water. This little book has
been translated into French, Spanish, and Swedish,
and has been circulated extensively throughout