d even the second trial may not be successful in throwing the
line across the wreck. The object is, however, generally attained on the
second or third attempt, and then the end of the hawser is drawn out to
the wreck by means of the small line which the shot had carried; and
being made fast and "drawn taut," the bridge is complete on which the
car is to traverse to and fro.

The visitors at Long Branch, a celebrated watering place on the New
Jersey coast, near New York, had an opportunity to witness a trial of
this apparatus at the station there, during the last summer: a trial
made, not in a case of storm and shipwreck, but on a pleasant summer
afternoon, and for the purpose of testing the apparatus, and for
practice in the use of it. A large company assembled on the bank to
witness the experiments. A boat was stationed on the calm surface of the
sea, half a mile from the shore, to represent the wreck. The ball was
thrown, the line fell across the boat, the car was drawn out, and then
certain amateur performers, representing wrecked and perishing men, were
put into the car and drawn safely through the gentle evening surf to the
shore.

[Illustration: FIRING THE SHOT.]

A case occurred a little more than a year ago on the Jersey shore not
very far from Long Branch, in which this apparatus was used in serious
earnest. It was in the middle of January and during a severe snow storm.
The ship Ayrshire, with about two hundred passengers, had been driven
upon the shore by the storm, and lay there stranded, the sea beating
over her, and a surf so heavy rolling in, as made it impossible for any
boat to reach her. It happened that one of the stations which we have
described was near. The people on the shore assembled and brought out
the apparatus. They fired the shot, taking aim so well that the line
fell directly across the wreck. It was caught by the crew on board and
the hawser was hauled off. The car was then attached, and in a short
time, every one of the two hundred passengers, men, women, children, and
even infants in their mothers' arms, were brought safely through the
foaming surges, and landed at the station. The car which performed this
service was considered as thenceforth fully entitled to an honorable
discharge from active duty, and it now rests, in retirement and repose,
though unconscious of its honors, in the Metallic Life-Boat Factory of
Mr. Francis, at the Novelty Iron Works.

In many cases of distress and