The slight density of cork, as compared with water, and its impermeability to liquids, make it an excellent float, capable not only of remaining on the surface, but also of supporting quite heavy bodies thereon. We shall be content to mention the annular cork float used in night lamps, the square block in which bath thermometers are fixed, and the fisherman’s dobber. It is cork, too, that is used by preference in the manufacture of swimming and life-saving apparatus, to which inventors have devoted much thought. Very many vessels are provided with cork mattresses, which, in cases of shipwreck, render the greatest services. For example, the ship _Constant_, which sailed from Anvers for Brazil in 1845, was wrecked on the night of October 12th, at twelve miles from St. Thanes, but, thanks to the cork life preservers and mattresses that she had on board, not one of the crew was lost. As for life-saving buoys, properly so called, they consist of several cork planks which are given an annular form, and are provided with free ropes that are knotted here and there so that they may be easily grasped. From the stern of every vessel a buoy of this kind is suspended by a rope that may be at once cut when the cry of “A man overboard!” is heard. These buoys are usually covered with canvas coated with a paint that serves to preserve it. It is also possible to save a person who has fallen into the water at a certain distance from a wharf by means of floats. This device consists of a piece of rattan provided with points around which molten lead has been poured, and the whole is then surrounded with cork in chips, and covered externally with canvas and a network to protect the affair against wear. Fenders are canvas bags that are filled with cork and are placed along the sides of ships or along docks in order to deaden the shock in case of a collision. Such are the principal uses rendered to navigation by cork. It has already been seen, by the extract from Pliny, that Roman ladies preserved their feet from cold by means of cork soles. Such a use of cork is still in vogue. In addition to these soles, which are flat, there are others that have nothing to do with hygiene, and are merely connected with fashion. Such are the Louis Quatorze talonettes, designed to increase the stature without exaggerating the heel of the shoe. Female dancers wear linings of this kind in their shoes, which, as well known, have flat soles. A thin sheet of cork enclosed in the sole of the shoe would, we think, prove very useful to troops on a march during bad weather.