out a good machine, and yet it is a tour
which, with a good machine, can be considered easy and comparatively
inexpensive.

One does not require a car with excessive horsepower for the trip,
though he does need a machine which has been carefully constructed
and adjusted, and above all he must guard carefully that his motor
does not overheat, for the hills are stiff for the most part.

When touring on an itinerary as varied as that here indicated one
should have anti-skidding tires on the rear wheels, take descents
with care, and, if you be the owner of a powerful machine, do not
make that an excuse for rushing up the tortuous, twisting, and
frightfully dangerous roads, banked by a cliff on one hand, and by a
precipice on the other, which abound in all mountainous regions.

In taking turnings on such roads also always keep to the right, even
if this necessitates slowing down at the bends. One never knows what
is descending, and in such parts slow-moving carts drawn by cattle
are numerous, and generally keep the middle of the road. Most of the
automobile accidents which take place on mountain roads are due to
this swishing round bends, heedless of what may be on the other side,
and in allowing one's machine to gather too much speed on the long
descents. This is gospel! There is both sport and pleasure to be had
from such an itinerary as this, but it is a serious affair, for one
has to have a lookout for many things that are unthought of in a two
hours' afternoon suburban promenade. The _chauffeur_, be he
professional or amateur, who brings his automobile back from the
_Circuit Europeen_ under its own power is entitled to be called
expert.

As for the value to automobilism of this great trial one can hardly
overestimate it. There is no place here for the freak machine or
scorching _chauffeur_, such as one has found in many great events of
the past. A great touring contest over such a course would be bound
to have important results in many ways. The ordinary class of
_circuit_ is a very close approach to a racing-track, with gasoline
and tire stations established at many points of the course. On the
European Circuit such advantages would be out of the question,
everything would have to be taken as it exists naturally. In a sense,
such a competition would be a return to the contests organized in the
early days of the automobile, the Paris-Bordeaux and Paris-Berlin
races, when the driver had ever to be on the alert for u