C06 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



minerals under the house. He was, therefore, first of all to 

 explore the room as a preliminary matter, and ascertain that 

 there were no indications of water nor minerals under the 

 house. The first attempt to discover the location of the hid- 

 den coin w r as successful, but under such circumstances as to 

 show that it was a matter of accident, and the operator re- 

 fused to repeat the experiment a second time, even for a sov- 

 ereign. The other diviner, a less expert person, seems to 

 have failed in three successive cases; and when he finally 

 succeeded, the conditions were such as to show the whole of 

 his audience, most of whom were ignorant men and professed 

 converts to the belief in the divining-rod, that the operator 

 was guided by no occult influences, but was merely guessing 

 his way along. It was evident, in fact, that there was no 

 mystery in the whole matter, and that there is as much de- 

 ception in the use of the divining-rod as was ever practiced 

 by the medicine-men of savage tribes. The use of the forked 

 rod for the purpose of finding minerals, springs, and in fact 

 every possible variety of desiderata, seems to have been hand- 

 ed down to us from the Middle Ages. Proc. Bristol Nat- 

 uralists Soc, New Series, I., i., 62. 



LIFE-SAVING STATIONS ON THE COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Among the important enterprises of the United States 

 C4overnment, looking toward the welfare of the nation, not 

 the least valuable is that of the establishment of life-saving 

 stations along the coast, with a view not only of succoring 

 shipwrecked vessels and their crews, but of communicating 

 information to insurance companies and revenue-cutters, and 

 thus securing more efficient aid when needed. A commission 

 has been engaged for some time past in selecting the stations, 

 and it is expected that at no distant day they will be located 

 along the entire coast at intervals of about every twenty-five 

 miles. The present year will witness the completion of that 

 portion of the cordon extending from Cape Hatteras to Sandy 

 Hook; and, in addition to the life-saving force, there will 

 probably be at each station a telegraphic observer, belong- 

 ing to the Signal Service, having his quarters in the building, 

 and whose duties, in addition to that of reporting accidents 

 or wrecks, will be to receive messages by signal from pass- 

 ing vessels, and to transmit them to any desired point ; also 



