64 THE SEA. 



which occurred in fresh water, is only one of scores that might be recorded here. On the 

 5th December, 1879, two men had to cross the St. Lawrence Elver, from La Rue Island to a 

 wharf on the main shore. It was an intensely cold day, and a heavy gale was blowing 

 strongly from the north-east up the river. The men loaded their punt with a sleigh, and 

 had managed to reach the middle of the channel, when a sudden and violent gust of wind 

 swamped the punt and turned her over. The men clung to her while bottom upward, and 

 tried to " tread " the water so as to get her to the shore, but in vain ; the cold was so 

 intense that their legs were benumbed above the knees, and they gave themselves up for 

 lost. They remained in this perilous position for a considerable time, shouting loudly for 

 help till their throats were sore. Making a final effort, they shouted again, and this time 

 their cries were heard at the house of a Mr. Darling, who, with his family, resided close to 

 the shore. That gentleman was ill in bed, but his wife and daughters, Maggie and Jessie, 

 were at home, the men and boys being at work in the fields at a distance. On hearing the 

 last painful shout of the drowning men, they quickly opened the door, to see them struggling 

 in the great river a stream the width and volume of which surpass anything in Europe. 

 The first suggestion from the mother was to fetch the men from the fields, but before this 

 could be done brave Maggie and Jessie the latter a girl of sixteen years had, without 

 a word, launched the skiff, and were rowing with all their strength through the troubled 

 waters and driving storm. They had the greatest difficulty in reaching the exhausted and 

 helpless men, but at last their noble effort was rewarded, and in ten minutes the poor fellows 

 were being chafed and warmed by their father's fire. Brave Maggie and Jessie ! worthy suc- 

 cessors, indeed; to your namesake, the heroine of the Longstone Light ! 



The story of Grace Darling must be familiar to our readers. The circumstances 

 which called forth her courage and humanity were as follow : 



The Forfars/iire, a steamer of moderate size, left Hull for Dundee on the evening of 

 September 5th, 1838, having on board a considerable amount of freight and sixty-three 

 passengers and crew. Soon after leaving the Humber the boilers began to leak, and on 

 Thursday morning the weather became very tempestuous, while a thick mist enveloped 

 the vessel. The steamer managed to pass the Fern Islands, on the way north, early on 

 Thursday evening, but had all she could do to make headway in a very heavy sea, while 

 the alarming fact was discovered that her boilers' leakage was increasing. As the night 

 advanced the weather became more and more boisterous, and somewhere off Berwick it 

 was found that the water from above was deluging the furnace fires. Off St. Abb's Head, 

 the engineer reported that the machinery would work no longer; the sails were accordingly 

 set, and the vessel allowed to drive before the wind, which took her southward. 

 Before daybreak on Friday morning the roar of breakers near at hand was heard; and the 

 captain tried hard to avert the appalling catastrophe which seemed inevitable, and steer 

 the vessel between the islands and the mainland, through a channel known as the Fair 

 Way. But the ForfarsMre would not answer her helm, and was driven hither and thither 

 by a furious sea. The scene at this juncture baffles description. Utter darkness enveloped 

 the doomed vessel, over which the sea broke in tremendous waves, and the noise of 

 which almost drowned the agonising shrieks of the passengers. The vessel, a few 

 minutes later, struck a rock, her bows banging and crashing upon it. At this moment 



