When all is ready to leave the masthead for flight, the pulling of a lever in the automatic coupling releases the ship. The latter then draws astern and upward, under the influence of the prevailing wind, until it is well clear of the landing station and can proceed on its course. The design of this apparatus is such that the landing of an airship is as easy in a wind as in complete calm. With its help an airship can land in any speed of wind in which it is safe to fly. Should the wind be so high (over 60 or 70 miles per hour) that the vessel cannot reach a given mast, it will always be possible to learn by wireless the nearest station at which favorable conditions allow it to come down. The release of the ship from the mast can take place in any wind-speed. Owing to the comparatively local nature of a big storm (storms are known not to cover districts greater than two hundred miles in diameter) the vessel, after slipping its moorings, is able to circumnavigate the disturbed area by making a small initial deviation from the true course. A part of the aërodrome should be given over to aëroplanes, used for the bringing of mails and urgent freight from places distant from the terminal. Heavier-than-air machines, in fact, will be the veins leading to the great arteries of the world's air routes, operated by dirigibles. A strong searchlight, for the guidance of aëroplane pilots flying in fog, might be necessary. Given improved landing facilities, means might be found for them to coast down the searchlight, if the ground away from it were invisible. Another method of delivering mails, before leaving for a landing ground away from the fog belt, is to drop them, attached to a parachute. When the package reaches earth it can be located by an electric bell, which rings on impact and continues ringing. The mail services of to-day, by railway and boat, can in many cases be greatly speeded up if part of a long journey be covered by aëroplane. A good instance is the route between Great Britain and South America. If a merchant in London posts three letters to correspondents in New York, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Ayres respectively, he may have a reply from New York before the Brazil man has had time to read his communication, and four or five days before the man in the Argentine has received his. An aërial short cut to Dakar--already several machines have flown there from Paris--would lessen by six or seven days the transit time for mailbags sent from England to Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Ayres.