St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-08-17

similar to that of your boisterous friend,
(you know him, of course; everybody
has one) who meets you on the street
after fortnight's absence, knocks the
breath out of you with blow on the
back, wrings your arm out of joint and
talks to you in tone that would reach
you if you were mile off-all to prove
to you the devoted character of his
friendship.
One gets his sea-legs on though af-
ter a few tlImbles, and it soon got to
be an exhilerating pleasure to stand in
five feet of water grasping the lifeline,
and see one great green wall after an
other roll toward us, mounting higher
and higher. and growing thinner and
thinner as it approached, till it curled
over our devoted heads and rushed
seething upon the sand.
And then the effort of the thing
After half an hour of such butfiting the
waves, you feel like a new creature.
Health, vigor, appetite-every thing
that the physical system wants seems
to flow in at every pore. Were
l to turn physician to-day, am afraid
my prescriptions would seem rather
monotonous, for would pack every pa
tient off to the sea-shOre and let the
great pool of health do all the healing.
The point on the beach at which our
surf bathing was done CHANGED to be
very near one of the life-saving stations
of the U. S. Coast Service, and had an
opportunity of learning something of
the working of this important system.
these stations are placed along this pOr-
4 Of Iu nf OH rtf
ten miles. During the winter months,
from the first of November till
the middle of April, each is
manned by picked crew who
patrol the beach every night and hold
everything in readiness to succOr dis
tressed vessels. Our host forms one of
the winter crew, and through his kind
ness | procured access to the station
and much more interesting information
than l can reproduce here. The station
itself is small unpretending framed
structure lying among the ''dunes" or
sand piles, which the storms of centu-
ries have raised, and contains within a
space of 40xI5 feet, the kitchen and
cot beds of the crew of seven, two large
boats mounted on wheels ready to
run out at moments notice, the mortar
from which twenty-five-pound balls
carrying life-lines are fired, rockets for
signals, appliances for restoring the be-
numbed seamen who may be rescued
from the waves, and everything else
which ingenuity and humanity can sug-
gest for frightening the efficiency of the
service. Curiously enough the most Sc
rious disaster known to that coast occur
red directly off this station last winter,
on the 29th of December the fine iron
vessel, the CircaSsian broke up, drown
ing twenty eight men. This however
was no fault of the station, but of the
careless wreckers who alone lost their
lives by their own reck lessness
But am afraid my apology is get
ting rather long, and that you will wish
that instead of trying to explain why
can't give you any letter this week,
would just let it go and say nothing
about it. So | won't say anything
about our experience in blue-fshing, or
about that big clambake we had up on
the Shinnecock Indian reservation, or
any of our numerous other exploits !;
but, promising strict attention to bust
ness in future, will subscribe myself,
penitently, RADIX.