6. The Isle of Man is a seat of the herring and cod fisheries, in which about seven hundred boats and four thousand persons are engaged. SUMMARY.-The Isle of Man is almost in the middle of the Irish Sea, and at nearly an equal distance from England, Scotland, and Ireland. It has its own governor, parliament, laws, and judges. The people and the language are called Manx. EXERCISE.-Draw as large a Map as you can of the Isle of Man. 29. THE LIFE-BOAT. 1. Light-houses, light-ships, beacons, and buoys, are placed round our shores, to guide the mariner in his course; but in spite of all our care, many hundreds of vessels are wrecked on the English coasts every year. Life-boats are therefore stationed at intervals around our shores. By their means hun dreds of lives are saved every year. 2. The modern life-boat is one of the grand inventions of the present century. It can hardly be destroyed. It cannot be sunk. 3. Let me tell you a story which shows the strength of the life-boat. One terrible night a ship was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. A life-boat went out to the rescue. Twelve men were taken off the vessel, making with the life-boat men thirtyone persons. 4. The life-boat stuck fast on a sand-bank near the wreck. A breaker came rolling towards it, filled it with water, caught it up like a plaything on its crest, and hurling it a few yards onwards, let it fall again with a shock that well-nigh threw every man out of it. 5. From bank to bank this splendid boat was thrown. Each breaker caught it by the bow or by the stern, and, whirling it right round, sent it crashing on the next ledge. Thus yard by yard, with a succession of shocks that would have knocked any ordinary boat to pieces, did the life-boat drive during two hours over two miles of the Goodwin Sands. At last it drove into deep water. The boatmen set their mast and hoisted their sail, and landed safely in Ramsgate Harbour. These air-cases 6. The life-boat cannot sink, because it has a number of air-chambers or cases round the sides of the boat and at the bow and the stern. are enough to float the boat, even if water and crowded with persons. case still more clearly, a life-boat is made to carry more than it can hold ! it were full of Or, to put the 7. On one occasion a life-boat went out to a wreck. As the boat neared the ship, a billow broke over it and buried it under the water. Yet it rose at once to the surface like a cork. It seemed as if the sinking and the leaping to the surface had been the work almost of the same moment. 8. One dark, stormy night, a wreck was seen about three miles off Dungeness. The life-boat put off, with eight stout men of the coast-guard for a crew. They reached the wreck soon after midnight, to find that the crew were already saved. 9. Nearing the shore, on returning, the boat got into a channel between two shoals, where it was caught by three heavy seas in succession, and upset. The crew were thrown into the water. Immediately the boat righted itself, and cleared itself of water. The crew, meanwhile, having on cork belts, floated, regained the boat, clambered into it by means of the life-lines hung round its sides, and returned to the shore in safety. bea-cons de-stroyed' im-me-di-ate-ly Rams-gate station SUMMARY.-Life-boats are stationed at intervals around our shores. By their means hundreds of lives are saved every year. The life-boat can hardly be destroyed, and it cannot be sunk. 30. THE LIFE-BOAT. 1. Man the life-boat! man the life-boat!— 3. Now the fragile bark is hanging O'er the billow's feathery height; 4. Courage! courage! she's in safety! |