Dwellers in the country are familiar with the way in which the parent birds teach their fledglings to fly, instructing them by example, and encouraging them in their first short flights until they have become familiar with their powers and can balance themselves aright in the air. And if even birds, with whom flying is an instinct, have to learn the art of balancing themselves in the air by practice, how much more so must such a clumsy creature as a man, to whom flying is entirely unnatural. Only by long and painful efforts can he ever hope to succeed at all, and unfortunately all such efforts are necessarily very dangerous. Many disastrous accidents have already occurred, and although great progress has been made, and the time may not now be far distant when, by means of improved machines, men will actually fly, it will be at the cost of much labour, and, it is to be feared, at the sacrifice of many more brave lives. CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION In our last chapters we have, in some measure, brought our aeronautical history up to the present day, though of necessity many important points and notable voyages have been passed over unnoticed. It now remains to us but to gather up the loose ends of the story, and then briefly to indicate the direction in which we may expect new advances in the future. And, first of all, it may be well to mention a few ballooning “records.” The largest balloon ever known was used as a captive at the Paris Exhibition of 1878. It was of 883,000 cubic feet capacity, and capable of lifting more than fifty passengers at a time. Other mammoth balloons of almost as great dimensions have also been employed for captive work; but the largest balloon intended specially for “right away” ascents was the “Giant,” built in Paris in 1863 by M. Nadar. It held 215,000 cubic feet of gas, and was made of 22,000 yards of best white silk, at 5s. 4d. a yard. The car was particularly elaborate, almost as big as a small cottage, being of two stories, and divided into several rooms. It proved, however, to be a very dangerous adjunct, for on the two occasions it was used those within received very serious injury during rough landings, and it was soon put aside and replaced by an ordinary basket. None of these monster sky craft appear to have been very successful, and at the present day the largest balloons in general use do not exceed 50,000 or 60,000 cubic feet capacity.