een practically abandoned, and the high fliers have returned to
the ignoble security of the Three, Five, and Six hundred foot levels.
But there remain a few undaunted sun-hunters who, in spite of frozen
stays and ice-jammed connecting-rods, still haunt the blue empyrean.

Bat-Boat Racing

The scandals of the past few years have at last moved the yachting world
to concerted action in regard to "bat" boat racing.

We have been treated to the spectacle of what are practically keeled
racing-planes driven a clear five foot or more above the water, and only
eased down to touch their so-called "native element" as they near the
line. Judges and starters have been conveniently blind to this
absurdity, but the public demonstration off St. Catherine's Light at the
Autumn Regattas has borne ample, if tardy, fruit. In future the "bat"
is to be a boat, and the long-unheeded demand of the true sportsman for
"no daylight under mid-keel in smooth water" is in a fair way to be
conceded. The new rule severely restricts plane area and lift alike. The
gas compartments are permitted both fore and aft, as in the old type,
but the water-ballast central tank is rendered obligatory. These things
work, if not for perfection, at least for the evolution of a sane and
wholesome _waterborne_ cruiser. The type of rudder is unaffected by the
new rules, so we may expect to see the Long-Davidson make (the patent on
which has just expired) come largely into use henceforward, though the
strain on the sternpost in turning at speeds over forty miles an hour is
admittedly very severe. But bat-boat racing has a great future before
it.

CORRESPONDENCE

Correspondence

Skylarking on the Equator

TO THE EDITOR--Only last week, while crossing the Equator (W. 26.15), I
became aware of a furious and irregular cannonading some fifteen or
twenty knots S. 4 E. Descending to the 500 ft. level, I found a party of
Transylvanian tourists engaged in exploding scores of the largest
pattern atmospheric bombs (A. B. C. standard) and, in the intervals of
their pleasing labours, firing bow and stern smoke-ring swivels. This
orgy--I can give it no other name--went on for at least two hours, and
naturally produced violent electric derangements. My compasses, of
course, were thrown out, my bow was struck twice, and I received two
brisk shocks from the lower platform-rail. On remonstrating, I was told
that these "professors" were engaged in scientific experim