Encouraged by these trials the company announced, and hoped to make, voyages at frequent intervals. But in this they promptly encountered difficulties. On June 28th the _Deutschland_ started from Düsseldorf on a four-hour cruise, with nearly a score of passengers, mostly newspaper representatives. But she remained in the air longer than intended. Passing Solingen she tried to reach Eberfeld, but ineffectually; nor could she find a landing place. Toward five o’clock she was caught in a great rising wind and carried one mile aloft like a passive balloon in a vortex or thunderhead. Here much gas was lost by expansion, and presently, as the ship emerged from a snow cloud in the upper vortex, with cooled gas and hull laden with precipitation, she descended at a terrible velocity. With crippled motive power, the vessel could not be supported dynamically by the impact of the air against her sustaining planes and against her canted hull, for lack of forward speed. At length with a terrific crash she struck upon the forest of Teutoberg, 80 miles from Dusseldorf, a great tree trunk piercing the rear boat and projecting among the terrified crew. Here the vessel lodged with her stern and controlling gear badly wrecked, and here she was abandoned by the passengers, with her huge hull resting on the branches forty feet from earth. Ere long she was retrieved by a company of infantry who sawed down the trees, dismantled the ship, and returned the parts on railway trucks to Friedrichshafen, to be used in building another vessel. Thus in both civil and military aëronautics the pioneers had to endure many losses and grievous hardships; but the direst disasters often mark the way to the greatest victories. PART II GROWTH OF AVIATION CHAPTER VII MODEL FLYING MACHINES From time immemorial man has admired the aërial evolutions of wing-gifted creatures, and aspired to imitate them. But which evolutions should he attempt first? Which if any are practicable for the ponderous lord of creation? The question is still pertinent. Nature in her bounty bewilders us with wondrous models. All about and overhead, with exquisite art, they challenge us to float or fly. Before the flower-bell drifts the ruby-throat, his long bill in the honey-hearted bloom; now bulletlike he leaps through boundless space. Why not adopt that style of locomotion? Call your rainbow equipage to the door, and take the family forth in purple state, to the music of melodious wheels.