om this
trifling neglect help could not be extended from the station. A strict
investigation was made, and it was proved by the testimony of the
people in Provincetown that all the apparatus was in perfect order and
the keepers and surfmen exerted themselves heroically in aid of the
doomed vessel, but that she was stranded so far from shore that it
was simply impossible to reach her. In another case, that of the
Vicksburg, wrecked on the Long Island coast, where a life was lost
through the remissness of the keeper, the whole force of the station
was discharged, and the order to that effect read to every crew in the
service.

The localities of the stations and houses of refuge now legally
authorized are--

Districts. Location. Stations.

1st. Coasts of Maine and New Hampshire, 6
2d. Coast of Massachusetts, 14
3d. Coasts of Long Island and Rhode Island, 36
4th. Coast of New Jersey, 39
5th. Coasts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, 8
6th. Coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, 10
7th. Eastern coast of Florida, 5[A]
8th. Coasts of Lakes Ontario and Erie, 9
9th. Coasts of Lakes Huron and Superior, 9
10th. Coast of Lake Michigan, 12
11th. Pacific coast, 8

[Footnote A: Houses of refuge.]

While we have been looking into these facts and figures the exploring
party in the house on the beach have told many a terrible tale of
shipwreck and half-hinted horrors, among others that of the ill-fated
Giovanni.

"Suppose that a ship should be driven on this bar in the middle of the
night, a storm raging," said one of the party, "what would then be the
keeper's duty?"

The captain threw open the door of the larger room, which in the
fading light looked full, but for a moment only, of ghostly shadows.
There we saw boats suspended halfway from the ceiling, other
mysterious apparatus ranged on either side, anchors, great cables
coiled accurately in heaps, and all in as exact neatness as though
upon the deck of a man-of-war.

"When a wrack is sighted," said the captain, "the signal-officer up
stairs telegraphs to the other near stations, whose keepers at once
send their lifeboats, cars and surfmen here. The ship is signaled--by
flags in daytime, by rockets at night." He opened a closet in which
were arranged the cases of lights, with books of i