ions of the whistling buoy have recently been much
diminished without detracting materially from the volume of sound it
produces. It is now made of four sizes. The smallest in our waters has a
bulb 6 feet in diameter and a tube 10 feet in length, and weighs but 2,000
pounds. The largest and oldest whistling buoy has a 12-foot bulb, a tube
32 feet long, and weighs 12,000 pounds.

There are now 34 of these whistling buoys on the coast of the United
States, which have cost, with their appurtenances, about $1,200 each. It
is a curious fact that, in proportion as they are useful to the mariner,
they are obnoxious to the house dweller within earshot of them, and that
the Lighthouse Board has to weigh the petitions and remonstrances before
setting these buoys off inhabited coasts. They can at times be heard 15
miles, and emit an inexpressibly mournful and saddening sound.

The inspector of the First Lighthouse District, Commander Picking,
established a series of observations at all the light stations in the
neighborhood of the buoys, giving the time of hearing it, the direction of
the wind, and the state of the sea, from which it appears that in January,
1878, one of these buoys was heard every day at a station 1-1/8 miles
distant, every day but two at one 21/4 miles distant, 14 times at one 71/2
miles distant, and 4 times at one 81/2 miles distant. It is heard by the
pilots of the New York and Boston steamers at a distance of one-fifth of a
mile to 5 miles, and has been frequently heard at a distance of 9 miles,
and even, under specially favorable circumstances, 15 miles.

The whistling buoy is also used to some extent in British, French, and
German waters, with good results. The latest use to which it has been put
in this country has been to place it off the shoals of Cape Hatteras,
where a light ship was wanted but could not live, and where it does
almost as well as a light ship would have done. It is well suited for such
broken and turbulent waters, as the rougher the sea the louder its sound.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--BROWN'S BELL BUOY.]

_Bell-Buoys._--The bell-boat, which is at most a clumsy contrivance,
liable to be upset in heavy weather, costly to build, hard to handle, and
difficult to keep in repair, has been superseded by the Brown bell-buoy,
which was invented by the officer of the lighthouse establishment whose
name it bears. The bell is mounted on the bottom section of an iron buoy 6
feet 6 inches across, whi