It is to guard against the danger of ships running upon rocks or quicksands that lighthouses are built.

The Eddystone

It was

Lighthouse was the first building of the kind erected on the British coast. first completed in 1696, and six years afterwards it was destroyed in a storm, and Winstanley the builder of it was, with others who were its inmates at the time, drowned.

The second Eddystone Lighthouse was began the same year that the first one was destroyed. It was burnt down fortynine years afterwards. Then the present one was built, and for more than a century it has been considered as firm as the rock on which it stands :

"The rocky ledge runs far into the sea,

And on its outer point some miles away,
The lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud hy day.

And the great ships sail outward and return;
Bending and bowing o'er the billowy swells;
And ever joyful as they see it burn,

They wave their silent welcomes and farewells."

"Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same
Year after year through all the silent night,
Burns on for evermore that quenchless flame,
Shines on that unextinguishable light!

'Sail on!' it says, 'sail on ye stately ships!

And with your floating bridge the ocean span ; Be mine to guard this light from all eclipse, Be yours to bring man nearer unto man!;"

Longstone Lighthouse on one of the Farn Islands is a famous British lighthousefamous because from that lonely watch tower, in September 1838, the young heroine, Grace Darling, assisted by only an old man, her father, launched a little boat to rescue her fellow-creatures. The Forfarshire steamer was wrecked-literally broken into two pieces on the rocks. So rough was the sea, that a crew of men, though offered £5 to launch their boats, would not do so. It is rare indeed for British hearts to fail. The refusal of those men to risk their lives in the attempt to save the lives of others, was the occasion of the display of such female bravery, as has rarely been equalled-never surpassed. Grace Darling, a fair, gentle, and delicate young woman-only twenty-two years of age-was the means of saving the lives of eighteen persons. She died of consumption in less than four years after her heroism had made her famous.

The life-boat is one of the most useful

inventions of the age. The first patent for a life-boat was granted in 1785, and since then great improvements have from time to time, and by various ingenious persons, been made in the construction of these use

ful boats. Of the many excellent British charities, one of the noblest is that called the "Royal National Life-Boat Institution."

A life-boat cannot sink. It may be upset, but not easily even in the roughest sea, and it rights itself immediately. Those who man the life-boats have cork jackets or belts to buoy them, or keep them from sinking in case of their falling overboard.

When wrecks occur on the high seas, that is, out of sight of land, of course there is no chance of help from the shore. But there is not so much danger on the open sea as there is when a ship is in a storm and in sight of land. The greater number of wrecks are in sight of land, and probably more vessels are wrecked off the British coast than in any other part of the world.

How it must cheer the hearts of those in a vessel scudding before the gale to see the life-boat!

Scudding means wind-driven; the ship has her sails furled, it may be that they