NOTE 2. p. 88. 1. 40.

Your helpless charge drive from the tempting spot. DURING the winter season, there are many shepherds lost in the snow. I have heard of ten being lost in one parish. When life-boats for the preservation of ship-wrecked mariners, and institutions for the recovery of drowned persons, obtain so much of the public attention and patronage, it is strange that no means are ever thought of, for the preservation of the lives of shepherds during snow-storms. I believe, that in nine instances out of ten, the death of the unhappy persons who perish in the snow is owing to their losing their way. A proof of this is, that very few are lost in the day-time. The remedy, then, is both easy and obvious. Let means be used for enabling the shepherd, in the darkest night, to know precisely the spot at which he is, and the bearings of the surrounding grounds. Snowstorms are almost always accompanied with wind. Suppose a pole, fifteen feet high, well fixed in

the ground, with two cross spars placed near the bottom, to denote the airts, or points of the compass; a bell hung at the top of this pole, with a piece of flat wood attached to it, projecting upward, would ring with the slightest breeze. For a few hundred pounds, every square mile of the southern district of Scotland might be supplied with such bells. As they would be purposely made to have different tones, the shepherd would soon be able to distinguish one from another. He could never be more than a mile distant from one or other of them. On coming to the spot, he would at once know the points of the compass, and of course the direction in which his home lay.

FINIS.