In the ordinary rifle practise the men are taught first to shoot well individually, then in groups and detachments, next in whole troops and companies and finally in conjunction with cavalry and artillery. They are made to adapt themselves to the most unfamiliar and unusual surroundings. Even the targets are of the most varied description: targets that fall to the ground when hit, targets that burst, targets surrounded by smoking objects or colored fires so that there will be some of the semblance of battle, fixed targets and targets that move or that float in the air, targets that have been lying flat on the ground but that suddenly appear here and there like an enemy issuing from the bushes. The rifleman must learn never to be surprised at anything, but to keep his eyes open in all directions. The German army rifle is of a type first introduced in 1888, and so much improved in 1898 that it is now known as the ninety-eight gun. All the infantry carry the same, for there is no longer any essential distinction between musketeers, fusileers and grenadiers. It is a quick-loading rifle which renders it possible to take aim and shoot as many as twenty-five times a minute. The caliber is seven and nine-tenths millimeters, a fact which may not at first seem to the American reader of great importance, but which becomes more interesting when it is realized that this is the smallest caliber which will inflict sufficient injury on an enemy to make its use profitable. In other words, if it does not kill him at once it will put him out of the fight and keep him out for a reasonable time. It was found in the Russian-Japanese War that a smaller bullet could, and in a number of cases did, pass through a foeman’s body without rendering him _hors de combat_, and that no less than forty per cent. of all wounded were back with their troops in three months. [Illustration: Building a Pontoon Bridge] [Illustration: Cannon for Shooting Air-ships] [Illustration: Combination Hydro and Aeroplane] There are Maxim rifles which can fire as many as a hundred shots a minute and which have other advantages too; but the German government is well satisfied with its own gun, considers it superior to that of any of its neighbors’ and has never seriously considered the question of changing. It has a smokeless powder, the process of manufacture of which is a carefully guarded secret.