"And in the meanwhile, that every protection possible shall be offered to ships, we have been as busy on the land as on the water and have established a code of laws to govern our coasts, harbors and rivers. Government surveys have charted the shores of all countries so that now there are complete maps that give not only the coast line but also the outlying islands, rocks and shoals that might be a menace to ships. It is no longer possible for a State bordering on the sea to put up a low building at the water's edge and set a few candles in the windows as was done back in the year eighteen hundred." Both the boys laughed. "We can laugh now," assented Mr. Ackerman with a smile, "but in those days I fancy it was no laughing matter. Even with all our up-to-date devices there are wrecks; and think of the ships that must have gone down before charts were available, lighthouses and bell buoys in vogue, wireless signals invented and the coast patrol in operation. I shudder to picture it. Sailing the seas was a perilous undertaking then, I assure you. Even the first devices for safety were primitive. The Argand lamp of 1812 was not at all powerful and the lenses used were far from perfect. Foghorns were operated by hand or by horse power and were not strong enough to be heard at any great distance. Bell buoys were unknown although there were such things as bell-boats which were anchored in dangerous spots and rung by the wash of the waves. There were lightships, too, but more often than not their feeble light was obscured or unnoticed and they were run down by the ships they sought to protect. Altogether there was room for improvement at every point and slowly but surely it came. After the Daboll trumpet, whistle and siren had been tried finer horns operated by steam or power engines supplanted them until now all along our coasts and inland streams signals of specified strength have been installed, a commission deciding just what size signals shall be used and where they shall be placed. There are lighthouses of prescribed candle power; automatic flashlights and whistling buoys; coastguard stations with carefully drilled crews; all regulated by law and matters of compulsion. If men and ships are lost now it is because it is beyond human power to help it." "There are facts about the water that are impossible to modify," interrupted Mr. Tolman, "and I suppose we shall never be able wholly to eliminate the dangers growing out of them. There are for example silence zones where, because of the nature of air currents or atmospheric conditions, no sounds can be heard. Often a foghorn comparatively near at hand will belch forth its warning and its voice be swallowed up in this strange stillness. Many a calamity has occurred that could only be accounted for in this way. Man is ingenious, it is true, but he is not omniscient and in the face of some of the caprices of nature he is powerless." Mr. Ackerman rose and stood with his back to the fire.