where they would
alight after the drop of a mile would be by no means certain. It is
also obvious that a vast amount of gas would have to be sacrificed
to compensate for the prodigal discharge of ballast in the form of
missiles.

The idea of manoeuvring a balloon in a wind, and poising it in the
manner suggested, is, of course, preposterous; and when one considers
the attempt to aim bombs from a moving balloon high in air the case
becomes yet more absurd. Any such missile would partake of the motion
of the balloon itself, and it would be impossible to tell where it would
strike the earth.

To give an example which is often enough tried in balloon travel when
the ground below is clear. A glass bottle (presumably empty) is cast
overboard and its fall watched. It is seen not to be left behind, but to
keep pace with the balloon, shrinking gradually to an object too small
to be discerned, except when every now and then a ray of sunlight
reflected off it reveals it for a moment as it continues to plunge
downwards. After a very few seconds the impression is that it is about
to reach the earth, and the eye forms a guess at some spot which it
will strike; but the spot is quickly passed, and the bottle travels far
beyond across a field, over the further fence, and vastly further yet;
indeed, inasmuch as to fall a mile in air a heavy body may take over
twenty seconds--and twenty seconds is long to those who watch--it is
often impossible to tell to two or three fields where it will finally
settle.

All this while the risk that a balloon would run of being riddled by
bullets, shrapnel, or pom-poms has not been taken into account, and as
to the estimate of this risk there is some difference of opinion. The
balloon corps and the artillery apparently approach the question with
different bias. On the one hand, it is stated with perfect truth that
a free balloon, which is generally either rising or falling, as well
as moving across country, is a hard object to hit, and a marksman would
only strike it with a chance or blundering shot; but, on the other hand
let us take the following report of three years ago.

The German artillery had been testing the efficiency of a quick-firing
gun when used against a balloon, and they decided that the latter would
have no chance of escape except at night. A German kite-balloon was kept
moving at an altitude of 600 metres, and the guns trained upon it were
distant 3,000 metres. It was then stated t