by the government, with the aid and co-operation of the
Humane Society--a benevolent association the object of which is to
provide means for rescuing and saving persons in danger of drowning--and
also of the New York Board of Underwriters, a body, which, as its name
imports, represents the principal Marine Insurance
Companies--associations having a strong pecuniary interest in the saving
of cargoes of merchandize, and other property, endangered in a
shipwreck. These three parties, the Government, the Humane Society, and
the Board of Underwriters, combine their efforts to establish and
sustain these stations; though we can not here stop to explain the
details of the arrangement by which this co-operation is effected, as we
must proceed to consider the more immediate subject of this article,
which is the apparatus and the machinery itself, by which the lives and
property are saved. In respect to the stations, however, we will say
that it awakens very strong and very peculiar emotions in the mind, to
visit one of them on some lonely and desolate coast, remote from human
dwellings, and to observe the arrangements and preparations that have
been made in them, all quietly awaiting the dreadful emergency which is
to call them into action. The traveler stands for example on the
southern shore of the island of Nantucket, and after looking off over
the boundless ocean which stretches in that direction without limit or
shore for thousands of miles, and upon the surf rolling in incessantly
on the beach, whose smooth expanse is dotted here and there with the
skeleton remains of ships that were lost in former storms, and are now
half buried in the sand, he sees, at length, a hut, standing upon the
shore just above the reach of the water--the only human structure to be
seen. He enters the hut. The surf boat is there, resting upon its
rollers, all ready to be launched, and with its oars and all its
furniture and appliances complete, and ready for the sea. The fireplace
is there, with the wood laid, and matches ready for the kindling.
Supplies of food and clothing are also at hand--and a compass: and on a
placard, conspicuously posted, are the words,

SHIPWRECKED MARINERS REACHING THIS HUT, IN FOG OR SNOW, WILL FIND
THE TOWN OF NANTUCKET TWO MILES DISTANT, DUE WEST.

It is impossible to contemplate such a spectacle as this, without a
feeling of strong emotion--and a new and deeper interest in the superior
excellency and nobleness of ef