etimes from a height of a mile or more, making no attempt at
recovery until within sixty metres of the ground, when he would save
himself by a hawk-like swoop in which his wheels would actually graze
the earth.

The organization of the French air service, with its system of
airplane and seaplane squadrons, dirigibles and observation balloons,
schools, repair-shops, and manufactories, is entirely an outgrowth of
the war. The airplanes are organized in _escadrilles_, usually
composed of ten machines each, for three distinct purposes. The
bombardment squadrons are made up of slow machines with great carrying
capacity, such as the Voisin; the pursuit or battle squadrons--the
_escadrilles de chasse_--are composed of small and very fast 'planes,
such as the Spad and Nieuport; while the general utility squadrons,
used for reconnoissance, artillery regulation, and photographing,
usually consist of medium-speed, two-passenger machines like the
Farman and the Caudron.

[Illustration: "_Halt!_ Show Your Papers!"
On the roads in the war zone there are sentries at frequent
intervals and they are all suspicious.]

[Illustration: A Nieuport Biplane About to Take the Air.
The pursuit or battle squadrons--the _escadrilles de chasse_--are
composed of small and very fast planes, such as the Spad and
Nieuport.]

Until very recently the Nieuport biplane, which can attain a speed of
one hundred and ten miles an hour, has been considered the fastest and
most efficient, as it is the smallest, of the French battle-planes,
but it is now out-speeded by the new Spad[C] machine, which has
reached a speed of over one hundred and twenty miles an hour, and of
which great hopes are entertained. The Spad, like the Nieuport, is a
one-man apparatus, the machine-gun mounted on its upper plane being
fired by the pilot with one hand, while with the other hand and his
feet he operates his controls. On the "tractors," as the airplanes
having the propellers in front are called, the machine-guns are
synchronized so as to fire between the whirling blades. Garros, the
famous French flier, was the first man to perfect a device for firing
a machine-gun through a propeller. He armored the blades so that if
struck by a bullet they would not be injured. This was greatly
improved upon by the Germans in the Fokker type, the fire of the
machine-guns being automatically regulated so that it is never
discharged when a blade of the propeller is