UNCLE SAM'S LIFE SAVERS. 353 



The value of tlie telephone as a means of commnnication be- 

 tween contiguous stations was lately illustrated. During one of 

 the worst and most destructive storms that ever visited the At- 

 lantic coast a large number of vessels were driven ashore at and 

 near Cape Henlopen. The crews of three life-saving stations were 

 summoned, and their combined labor effected the rescue of a hun- 

 dred and ninety-four persons from twenty-two vessels. Of these, 

 a hundred and thirty-five were landed with the " breeches buoy." 

 Not one life was lost during the operations. Crews, with their 

 boats and apparatus, are often transported long distances by rail 

 to meet emergencies. On the shore of Lake Superior such a trip 

 was once made a distance of a hundred and ten miles, the railway 

 train running at the utmost possible speed. The spot was reached 

 at midnight, and in the midst of a blinding snowstorm thirty- 

 four persons were brought safely to shore from two stranded 

 vessels. 



At the stations shipwrecked persons are cared for with dry 

 clothing, nourishment, and medicines. Often they are exhausted 

 by exposure or hunger, or injured by the accidents of wreck and 

 rescue. Frequently they are to all appearances dead. The record 

 shows that during the existence of the life-saving service there 

 have been treated a hundred and eighteen cases of apparent 

 death. In sixty of these resuscitation was successful, failing in 

 fifty-eight. In a few instances respiration was restored after 

 several hours had elapsed. While the saving of life is the pri- 

 mary object of the service, it has a secondary duty in the saving 

 of property, which runs up into the millions. 



Before the service was established no statistics of loss of life 

 were recorded, so that it is not possible to show by comparison 

 the decrease of deaths by shipwreck as the result of the efforts of 

 the life-savers. It is learned from authentic information, how- 

 ever, that upon the Long Island and New Jersey coasts, during 

 the twenty years from 1850 to 1870, the average annual loss of life 

 was twenty-five; while during eighteen years of the service the 

 yearly average has been but seven. No doubt a similar ratio 

 would apply to other points of danger along our coasts. Each 

 successive year shows a better record, as life-saving appliances are 

 more nearly perfected, abundantly attesting the efiiciency and 

 value of this branch of Government effort in behalf of its people. 



In the opinion of Mr. Henry Seebohm, the extreme views of the theory of an 

 ice age have been to a large extent abandoned. No one now believes in the 

 former existence of a polar ice cap, and possibly when the irresistible force of 

 ice-dammed rivers has been fully realized, the estimated area of glaciation may be 

 considerably reduced. The so-called great ice age may have been a great snow 

 age, with local centers of glaciation on the higher grounds. 

 VOL. xnv. 28 



