ers are obliged to recoil
before. It has the advantage of being able to move forward, whatever
be the fury of the sea, and is capable, besides, of approaching rocks
without any danger of its being broken.

[Illustration: RELVAS'S NEW LIFE BOAT.]
A committee was appointed by the Portuguese government to examine this
new life-boat, and comparative experiments were made with it and an
ordinary life-boat at Porto on a very rough sea. Mr. Relvas's boat was
manned by eight rowers all provided with cork girdles, while the
government life-boat was manned by twelve rowers and a pilot, all
likewise wearing cork girdles. The chief of the maritime department,
an engineer of the Portuguese navy and a Portuguese deputy were
present at the trial in a pilot boat. The three boats proceeded to the
entrance of the bar, where the sea was roughest, and numerous
spectators collected upon the shore and wharfs followed their
evolutions from afar.

The experiments began at half past three o'clock in the afternoon. The
two life-boats shot forward to seek the most furious waves, and were
seen from afar to surmount the billows and then suddenly disappear. It
was a spectacle as moving as it was curious. It was observed that Mr.
Relvas's boat cleft the waves, while the other floated upon their
surface like a nut-shell. After an hour's navigation the two boats
returned to their starting point.

The official committee that presided over these experiments has again
found in this new boat decided advantages, and has pointed out to its
inventor a few slight modifications that will render it still more
efficient.--_La Nature._

* * * * *

EXPERIMENTS WITH DOUBLE-BARRELED GUNS AND RIFLES.

The series of experiments we are about to describe has recently been
made by Mr. Horatio Phillips, a practical gun maker of London. The
results will no doubt prove of interest to those concerned in the use
or manufacture of firearms.

The reason that the two barrels of a shot gun or rifle will, if put
together parallel, throw their charges in diverging lines has never
yet been satisfactorily accounted for, although many plausible and
ingenious theories have been advanced for the purpose. The natural
supposition would be that this divergence resulted from the axes of
the barrels not being in the same vertical plane as the center line of
the stock. That this is not the true explanation of the fact, the
following experiment w