wrecked on their
harbourless shores. For the Gulf of Mexico eight are considered
sufficient, and the long Pacific coast also requires but eight.

The Life-Saving Service, formerly under the Treasury Department, now an
important part of the Department of Commerce and Labour, was organised
by Sumner I. Kimball, who was put at its head in 1871, and the great
success and glory it has won is largely due to his energy and efficient
enthusiasm.

The Life-Saving Service publishes a report of work accomplished through
the year. It is a dry recital of facts and figures, but if the reader
has a little imagination he can see the record of great deeds of heroism
and self-sacrifice written between the lines.

As vessels labour through the wintry seas along our coasts, and the
on-shore winds roar through the rigging, while the fog, mist or snow
hangs like a curtain all around, it is surely a comfort to those at sea
to know that all along the dangerous coast men specially trained, and
equipped with the most efficient apparatus known, are always ready to
stretch out a helping hand.

MOVING PICTURES

Some Strange Subjects and How They Were Taken

The grandstand of the Sheepshead Bay race-track, one spring afternoon,
was packed solidly with people, and the broad, terra-cotta-coloured
track was fenced in with a human wall near the judges' stand. The famous
Suburban was to be run, and people flocked from every direction to see
one of the greatest horse-races of the year. While the band played
gaily, and the shrill cries of programme venders punctuated the hum of
the voices of the multitude, and while the stable boys walked their
aristocratic charges, shrouded in blankets, exercising them sedately--in
the midst of all this movement, hubbub, and excitement a man a little to
one side, apparently unconscious of all the uproar, was busy with a big
box set up on a portable framework six or seven feet above the ground.
The man was a new kind of photographer, and his big box was a camera
with which he purposed to take a series of pictures of the race. Above
the box, which was about two and a half feet square, was an electric
motor from which ran a belt connecting with the inner mechanism; from
the front of the box protruded the lens, its glassy eye so turned as to
get a full sweep of the track; nearby on the ground were piled the
storage batteries which were used to supply the current for the motor.

As the time for the race drew n