The New Water Skates

If tlie "water skates" inventcd by a commercial traveler namcd Soule, says rho l'hiladelphia Times, shall provo as woll adaptcd to otlier feet as they sceia to Lc to his, wc may find in thcm a solivión of' the problem of preserving life in case of fteamboat disaster. Mr. Soule has walktd across the Harlem river in the presenee ofagreat ciowd of New Yorkers. His ".-ikates are in genera! appearaoce soniething like tho snow-shoes of the Indiana, being about five fcet long for a six-foot ruan. They are about ten inches broad and are made of zinc, being hollow, so as to be buoyed up by the air that is fealed vrithin thetu. They do not weigh much more tban ordinary life-preservers. Underneath each skate isa sort of a paddling apparatus, not unliko that of the king crab. It works by the 111 ot ion of the foot as it takcs a step. A soeket for the foot of the wearer is in the top of each skate. Mr. Soule fiuds that he can toss these contrivancos into the water, swim to them and sit on one while ha puts one foot into the other skate. Theo he risei on the one into which hehas inserted his foot, steps into the other and is ready to walk on the water as long as he wanta to. Possibly it may require some pñotiba to use these water skates, and it ia also possible that they might bc hard to manage in a rough sea. Forsmooth water they seem to present a variety of advanIt must be admitted that a party of wrecked steamboaters, gliding over the water on these curious contrivances, would present an appearanco as amusing as it would be novel.