of certain shipmasters is
known by the particular lines of the bow and stern of the vessels which
are built in their yards.

Birds fly by a flapping movement of their wings, or by soaring. We are
quite familiar with both these actions: at one time the bird propels
itself by means of powerful muscles attached to its wings by means of
which the wings are flapped up and down; at another time the bird, with
wings nicely adjusted so as to take advantage of all the peculiarities
of the air currents, keeps them almost stationary, and soars or glides
through the air.

The method of soaring alone has long since been proved to be
impracticable as a means of carrying a machine through the air, unless,
of course, one describes the natural glide of an aeroplane from a great
height down to earth as soaring. But the flapping motion was not proved
a failure until numerous experiments by early aviators had been tried.

Probably the most successful attempt at propulsion by this method was
that of a French locksmith named Besnier. Over two hundred years ago he
made for himself a pair of light wooden paddles, with blades at either
end, somewhat similar in shape to the double paddle of a canoe. These
he placed over his shoulders, his feet being attached by ropes to the
hindmost paddles. Jumping off from some high place in the face of a
stiff breeze, he violently worked his arms and legs, so that the paddles
beat the air and gave him support. It is said that Besnier became so
expert in the management of his simple apparatus that he was able to
raise himself from the ground, and skim lightly over fields and rivers
for a considerable distance.

Now it has been shown that the enormous extent of wing required to
support a man of average weight would be much too large to be flapped
by man's arm muscles. But in this, as with everything else, we have
succeeded in harnessing the forces of nature into our service as tools
and machinery.

And is not this, after all, one of the chief, distinctions between man
and the lower orders of creation? The latter fulfil most of their bodily
requirements by muscular effort. If a horse wants to get from one place
to another it walks; man can go on wheels. None of the lower animals
makes a single tool to assist it in the various means of sustaining
life; but man puts on his "thinking-cap", and invents useful machines
and tools to enable him to assist or dispense with muscular movement.

Thus we find that in