s a
second visit; Latham manoeuvred round the airship on his Antoinette and
finally left it far behind. Henry Farman won the Grand Prix de Champagne
on this day, covering 112 miles in 3 hours, 4 minutes, 56 seconds,
Latham being second with his 96.5 miles flight, and Paulhan third.

On the Saturday, Glenn Curtiss came to his own, winning the
Gordon-Bennett Cup by covering 20 kilometres in 15 minutes 50.6 seconds.
Bleriot made a good second with 15 minutes 56.2 seconds as his time,
and Latham and Lefebvre were third and fourth. Farman carried off the
passenger prize by carrying two passengers a distance of 6 miles in 10
minutes 39 seconds. On the last day Delagrange narrowly escaped serious
accident through the bursting of his propeller while in the air, Curtiss
made a new speed record by travelling at the rate of over 50 miles an
hour, and Latham, rising to 500 feet, won the altitude prize.

These are the cold statistics of the meeting; at this length of time it
is difficult to convey any idea of the enthusiasm of the crowds over
the achievements of the various competitors, while the incidents of
the week, comic and otherwise, are nearly forgotten now even by those
present in this making of history. Latham's great flight on the Thursday
was rendered a breathless episode by a downpour of rain when he had
covered all but a kilometre of the record distance previously achieved
by Paulhan, and there was wild enthusiasm when Latham flew on through
the rain until he had put up a new record and his petrol had run out.
Again, on the Friday afternoon, the Colonel Renard took the air together
with a little French dirigible, Zodiac III; Latham was already in the
air directly over Farman, who was also flying, and three crows which
turned out as rivals to the human aviators received as much cheering for
their appearance as had been accorded to the machines, which doubtless
they could not understand. Frightened by the cheering, the crows tried
to escape from the course, but as they came near the stands, the crowd
rose to cheer again and the crows wheeled away to make a second charge
towards safety, with the same result; the crowd rose and cheered at them
a third and fourth time; between ten and fifteen thousand people stood
on chairs and tables and waved hats and handkerchiefs at three ordinary,
everyday crows. One thoughtful spectator, having thoroughly enjoyed the
funny side of the incident, remarked that the ultimate mastery of the