Coming to the aeronautical work of the present day, it is humiliating to have to confess that, through lack of public support, England has somewhat fallen behind other nations. In America and on the Continent large sums of money are subscribed for experiments with balloons, airships, and flying machines; but in our own country all efforts in these directions are due to private enterprise alone. Among those most keenly interested in aeronautical progress may be mentioned Mr. P. Alexander, of Bath; Major Baden-Powell, President of the English Aeronautical Society; and the Rev. J. M. Bacon. The latter has made many scientific balloon ascents for the study of meteorology, acoustics, and other kindred sciences, and his observations have proved of much interest and value. During his voyages he has met with several adventures, though no serious mishaps. On one occasion, when the writer accompanied him, during a night ascent made to observe the great shower of Leonid shooting stars foretold for the 16th of November 1899, the balloon became unmanageable while lost above the clouds. For ten hours it refused to come down, during much of which time the sea was heard beneath, and the voyagers believed themselves blown out over the Atlantic. A very stormy landing, in which the writer broke her arm, was eventually made near the coast in South Wales as before mentioned. In November 1902, Mr. Bacon, accompanied by Mr. Percival Spencer, crossed the Irish Channel by balloon, the second time only this dangerous passage has been made, the first occasion being the voyage of Mr. Windham Sadler, eighty-five years before. Mr. Bacon’s voyage was partly undertaken for the Admiralty, who lent the services of a gunboat to follow the balloon’s course over the sea. One of the special objects of investigation was to test a theory, long held, that from a considerable height aloft the bottom of the sea becomes visible, even in rough weather when the surface is troubled with waves. This point was very successfully settled, for although the sea was very rough, Mr. Bacon not only saw, but succeeded in photographing, from a height of 600 feet, the beds of sand and rock lying in ten fathoms at the bottom of the Irish Channel--a feat never before accomplished. In scientific observations of the upper atmosphere a valuable ally to the balloon has been found in the kite. The making of kites has now reached a high pitch of perfection, and by their means self-recording scientific instruments can be raised to vast heights in the air, and even men carried aloft with safety. A kite which latterly has excited much attention is the Cody kite. With this, during the autumn of 1903, its inventor, a Mexican, hazarded a bold venture. Harnessing it to a light boat, and waiting for a favourable wind, he started from Calais at eight o’clock one November evening, and was safely towed all night across the Channel, reaching Dover at five the next morning.