utility on tidal bars; on wrecks, to facilitate the operations of
rescue; on lifeboats and on lifebuoys. In regard to icebergs, he thought
the possibility of obtaining an echo from an iceberg when in dangerous
proximity to a ship should be tried. He advocated the use of automatic
sprinklers in the case of fire, the establishment of parabolic
reflectors for concentration of sound, and the further prosecution of
experiments by Professor Bell in establishing communication between
vessels some distance apart by means of interrupted electrical currents.
The improvement of navigation, he said, meant an international code of
police to improve police rules of navigation; an international code of
universal telegraphy for navigation; an international office of
meteorology and navigation to collect the studies; experiments on the
weather, on the sea, on the casualties; and the discovery by experiment
of new apparatus and appliances to diminish maritime disaster.

He had called the attention of two governments to this matter, and he
hoped that before long there would be proposed an international
congress--such as the postal, telegraph, and sanitary congresses, and
the international convention to fix the common meridian--by one of the
maritime powers, by which would be founded an international institution
to diminish casualties at sea. He recommended a universal system of
buoys. The great losses of life and property every year were worthy the
devotion of £300,000 by an international institution, which would be
much less than the monthly average loss in navigation.

Admiral Pim said that ships were improperly built--some were ten times
longer than their beam. There was nothing in the world so ticklish as a
ship; touch her in the waist, and down she goes. He believed sailing
ships ought not to exceed four times their beam, and steamers certainly
not more than six times. He pointed out that a fruitful cause of