One of woman’s noblest attributes is her readiness to help in the hour of need, and its exercise has been by no means confined to the land. Late in 1879 the British India Steam Navigation Company’s steamer _Eldorado_ had a hairbreadth escape from destruction in the Bay of Biscay. The rascally Lascar crew abandoned their posts and gave themselves up to despair, and the passengers “passed” coal to the stoke‐hole and worked hard at baling; many ladies even volunteered to assist, and two American ladies acted as stewardesses and dispensed coffee and provisions to the rest. [Illustration: THE RESCUE FROM THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER.] How often of late years have female swimmers saved life? The case to be cited, and which occurred in fresh water, is only one of scores that might be recorded here. On the 5th December, 1879, two men had to cross the St. Lawrence River, from La Rue Island to a wharf on the main shore. It was an intensely cold day, and a heavy gale was blowing strongly from the north‐ east up the river. The men loaded their punt with a sleigh, and had managed to reach the middle of the channel, when a sudden and violent gust of wind swamped the punt and turned her over. The men clung to her while bottom upward, and tried to “tread” the water so as to get her to the shore, but in vain; the cold was so intense that their legs were benumbed above the knees, and they gave themselves up for lost. They remained in this perilous position for a considerable time, shouting loudly for help till their throats were sore. Making a final effort, they shouted again, and this time their cries were heard at the house of a Mr. Darling, who, with his family, resided close to the shore. That gentleman was ill in bed, but his wife and daughters, Maggie and Jessie, were at home, the men and boys being at work in the fields at a distance. On hearing the last painful shout of the drowning men, they quickly opened the door, to see them struggling in the great river—a stream the width and volume of which surpass anything in Europe. The first suggestion from the mother was to fetch the men from the fields, but before this could be done brave Maggie and Jessie—the latter a girl of sixteen years—had, without a word, launched the skiff, and were rowing with all their strength through the troubled waters and driving storm. They had the greatest difficulty in reaching the exhausted and helpless men, but at last their noble effort was rewarded, and in ten minutes the poor fellows were being chafed and warmed by their father’s fire. Brave Maggie and Jessie! worthy successors, indeed, to your namesake, the heroine of the Longstone Light! The story of Grace Darling must be familiar to our readers. The circumstances which called forth her courage and humanity were as follow:—