vivid and distinct as the flame of a candle, while all
above the smoke was so thick that the eye could not penetrate it. The
fire had already burst through three out of five windows in the
apartment, yet, when lying flat on the floor, no inconvenience was
felt except from the heat.

When the fire has broken through a floor, the supply of air along that
floor is not to be depended on--the fire drawing the principal supply
of air from the apartments below.

When the two first firemen have gained a favourable position, they
should keep it as long as they are able; and when they feel exhausted,
the men behind them should take their place.

The great point to which everything ought to be made subservient is,
_that the water on its discharge from the branch-pipe should actually
strike the burning materials_. This cannot be too often or too
anxiously inculcated on every one connected with a fire-engine
establishment. Every other method not having this for its grand
object, will, in nine cases out of ten, utterly fail; and upon the
degree of attention paid to this point, depends almost entirely the
question as to the amount of damage the fire will occasion.

When approaching a fire, it should always be done by the door, if
possible. When this is attended to, it is much easier to shift the
hose from one apartment to another; and the current of fresh air,
entering by the door and proceeding along the passages, makes
respiration easier and safer than elsewhere.

When entrance by the door is impracticable, and access is to be gained
by a window, the flames frequently burst through in such a manner as
to render advance in the first instance impossible. In that case, the
branch should be pointed against the window, nearly in a perpendicular
direction; the water striking the lintel, and falling all round inside
the window, will soon extinguish the fire at that point sufficiently
to render an entrance practicable.

The old plan of standing with the branch pipe in the street, and
throwing the water into the windows is a very random way of going to
work; and for my own part, although I have seen it repeatedly tried, I
never saw it attended with success. Indeed it is hardly to be expected
that water, thrown from the street into a room three or four storeys
high, can have any impression on closets, presses, or passages,
divided probably with brick partitions in the centre of the house. The
circumstance of having engines at work on b