your companion be ready with the painter,' sitting on the middle thwart (not further forward), and the instant before the boat strikes put down the helm and sheer her up against the beach aground. Your friend should by this time be over the bows, holding the boat by the painter, to prevent her listing out towards the sea, and you will get rid of your iron or stone as fast as possible, casting it out of the way of the boat up the beach, when you will leap out, and having thrust a way underneath the stem, will be able to haul the boat out of the reach of the water. It is customary to have a hole bored underneath the stem, by passing the painter through which you will be able to lift and pull at the same time.

The fishermen generally use a single block, making the rope fast to a post driven into the shingle high up the beach, which is a very good plan; but still better is a small capstan and chain having a hook at the end, which can be easily attached to a loop of iron bolted low down on the stem. When running ashore under sail do not lower the canvas until the boat is out of the water, as the sails will materially help in keeping the boat in against the beach, to ensure which the main sheet is often belayed on the weather side. In rowing ashore, watch for a smooth and pull sharply in, and having the painter ready act as above directed.

I have been induced to enter into beach boating somewhat at length, as there are many places on the coast without harbours, such as Brighton &c., where much boating is done. during the summer months; but at the same time I should not advise visiting these open shores specially for the sake of boating or fishing, which can generally be followed much more agreeably where there is a good harbour.

Harbour Boating.-Harbour boating is far preferable to beach boating, for the following reasons: it is not necessary to haul up on coming ashore, consequently the ballasting and unballasting is got rid of, your boat is generally, if not always, afloat, which admits of the bottom being sharper, or, as shipwrights term it, of greater rise of floor, and this gives her great

1 Painter, three fathoms of two and a half inch rope spliced into the ringbolt inside the stem.

advantage in plying to windward; in addition to this, the ballast can be neatly floored over, which renders the boat much more comfortable. Various kinds of bait are usually procurable in most of our larger harbours, which have to be fetched frequently from a distance for the use of the beachmen, and consequently are not always to be had. In many of our harbours a running mooring can be fixed, by help of which the boat can be hauled in or out at pleasure, a great advantage for which no one would object to pay a moderate yearly fee. For harbour boating, the sprit or lugsail rigs are quite as well adapted as for beach work, but as a carvel or smoothly-built boat can here be used, it is preferable to clench-work, as it can be kept clean with much greater facility. A boat of thirteen feet six inches to fifteen feet in length will allow of more variety of fishing than a larger for the reasons before mentioned; but as many prefer sailing to fishing, they will find no difficulty in suiting themselves in most of our larger ports with any size they may fancy. In case of keeping a large boat for offing-fishing, a smaller one will also be requisite for shore work.

General Remarks.-Whilst sailing under high cliffs when the wind is off shore caution is necessary, as in such localities it is very uncertain, being a constant succession of flaws and calms, and on passing any opening in these cliffs, as the entrance of a valley or ravine, the flaws are felt with increased violence, which is frequently perceived as far as a mile from the shore. In a small boat the main sheet should always be held in the hand, ready to let fly and take the pressure off the boat if necessary; but if the flaws should not be of extraordinary violence, it will frequently suffice to put the helm down a little and luff up into the wind, as it is called, by which time the flaw will probably have passed. A moderate amount of sail should always be carried in uncertain weather, and far more accidents happen to amateurs in smooth water sailing with offshore winds than at any other time, generally from heedlessness and want of common precaution, from which even many of those who get their livelihood on salt water are not altogether exempt. Large deep-bodied boats are longer in feeling the effect of a flaw of wind, as their form gives them great hold

of the water, and there is generally time to shorten sail by tricing up the main tack and lowering the foresail, and, if a yawl, the mainsail also, as the mizen is sufficient to keep the boat close enough to the wind in smooth water.

STAYING is the evolution of coming about against the wind, and is performed by putting the helm down gradually and slackening the jib-sheet, at the same time shifting the mainsheet to the other quarter of the boat; the jib-sheet must now be hauled in a little on the weather side, until the head of the boat has fallen off sufficiently to fill the sails, when the lee jibsheet is to be hauled aft and belayed. It is a great error to put down the helm suddenly, as the way of the boat is thereby much deadened and the power of the rudder nearly lost; in fact, a boat often misses stays (particularly in a heavy swell) from this cause.

Many boats will come round without easing the jib, which is an advantage. In yawls, cutters, &c., as the foresail pays off the head of the boat, the jib-sheet is hauled aft in the act of staying.

WEARING is the evolution of going round on the other tack before the wind, and is performed by putting the helm up or aweather, changing your position and setting your back against it to keep it so, which leaves your hands at liberty to cast off the main-sheet; this is to be hauled taut amidships until the wind comes on the other quarter of the boat, when it is to be eased over and made fast as before. Wearing in a strong wind requires much caution in all craft, but particularly in small boats, for if the mainsail be not steadied by hand, but allowed to sally across from one side to the other, the boat may be upset, or if a spritsail, the head of it may get over the top of the mast, and cause risk and trouble to clear it.

BELAYING THE MAIN-SHEET.-The improper performance of this is a fruitful source of accident, and in small boats should be so managed that it may be let fly instantaneously if required. The best arrangement for small craft is to introduce two wooden pins through the stern or transom board of the boat, one on each side; the ends of the pins should project through the inside long enough to allow of the main-sheet being passed under the inside end after it has been passed under the end

outside. When the main-sheet has been passed under the inner end of the pin, a bow or bight is pushed under, which is held securely by the haulage of the sail: this can be immediately cast off by a sharp

FIG. 85.-Belaying the Main-sheet.

pull on the free end when necessary. (See fig. 85). In squally weather or under high lands in anything like a breeze, I merely pass the main-sheet under the outside end of the pin, holding it in my hand, ready to let fly on the instant. Much of my experience having been in sailing under the high cliffs of South Devon, the necessity of caution in no ordinary degree has been impressed on me, from the frequent casualties in these localities. Large boats have

a tackle purchase fixed on each quarter, or a horse of bar iron, which should be galvanised; the horse is preferable for

amateurs.

BEATING TO WINDWARD in a heavy sea, watch the approaching waves, and should any appear likely to break aboard, yield the helm a little to the boat, which will, as sailors term it, 'ease her when she pitches;' she will thus pass lightly over it and ship little or no water, when you can again keep your

course.

SCUDDING OF RUNNING in a heavy sea, carry as much sail as your boat can bear comfortably, but no more, and diminish your after sail by lowering your mizen, or your sprit if your boat is of that rig, or dropping the peak of a gaffsail-boat a little ; you will thus be enabled to keep before the sea, for should she broach-to-that is to say, under these circumstances present her side, instead of her stern, to the pursuing waves—she will very likely be filled.

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The Coble. This description of boat has been in use from time immemorial on the north-east coasts of England, and is well adapted for beaching from its light draught of water. The ordinary dimensions are twenty feet six inches long and five feet beam. The bow is very high and sharp, the stern low, and with no keel aft. The rudder is very deep, running underneath the bottom, so that in scudding before a heavy sea when the stern rises the rudder is still sufficiently submerged to keep the boat from running out of steerage and broaching to, a constant source of accident in other boats They have one mast with a considerable rake, on which they set a lugsail and sometimes also a jib. They are favourite boats of the fishermen and pilots, and when landing are backed in stern foremost because this part of the boat draws hardly any water, as from the stern forward half the bottom is flat. Astern of a vessel they are always towed stern foremost, and are often pulled in the same fashion. They are peculiar boats to handle, but are safe enough when skilfully managed, and some go so far as to say that no other boat, a life-boat excepted, could be used on the above coasts.

Safety Fishing-boats.-The accompanying woodcuts, pp. 273, 274, having attracted my attention in the 'Illustrated News' of March 30, 1867, I communicated with Richard Lewis, Esq., Secretary of the Royal National Life-boat Institution, who was kind enough to place the blocks at my disposal, and at the same time to forward the following article on the subject. I have given a place in this work to the matter, with the intention that should any of my readers take an active interest in the welfare of our hardy fishermen, so far as to forward the object of the Institution, or wish to obtain such a craft for their own use, they may at once be enabled to refer a boat-builder to the plans and sections.

As I find my work is circulating not only through the kingdom but also in the Colonies, I trust the information contained in this article may be useful in the development of our fisheries both abroad and at home. The following article refers in extenso to this subject.