The charge should be in close contact with the object to be demolished. =Transportation.=--The handling of high explosives should be done under the immediate supervision of persons thoroughly familiar with the proper methods to be pursued and who will exercise great care and judgment. High explosives should be packed in light wooden boxes properly marked. The French have a wagon containing about 350 lbs. attached to a horse-battery accompanying the cavalry division, acting independently, and two such wagons with the artillery-park. Care is taken that they are not placed too near the other ammunition and are in the safest place under careful observation. On a steamer place the explosives in a well-ventilated place remote from the engine. On railways, if the weather be hot, there should be good ventilation and ice in the car, so placed that water cannot reach the explosives. In winter protect from freezing if possible. Packing in straw or sawdust may be useful. Under no circumstances should cases of fuzes be in the same car, or in the vicinity of the explosive. The packages of guncotton should not be exposed to the sun--cover with paulins, put under shade-trees. =Storage.=--At military posts, in ordinary service magazines over which are erected light wooden roofs, so as to insure a draught during hot weather. The usual precautions against fire and for storage of ordinary powder must be taken; and neither fuzes, caps, nor detonators of any kind should ever be allowed in the magazine containing the explosives. Dry guncotton should not be stored in the same magazine with wet guncotton. Before being placed in the magazine the boxes should be given a coat of paint or shellac, to protect them from moisture. They should also be placed on skids and the space between the skids partially filled with sawdust, to absorb any exuding nitro-glycerine. If any powder should be spilled on the floor, or nitro-glycerine exude and be absorbed by the sawdust, it should be removed at once and burned. The boxes should be turned over every month or two, and if kept long on hand they should be opened and the explosive tested from time to time. When guncotton is received, pour into each package enough water to cover it, or otherwise immerse it. Let the water remain for 15 minutes; then pour it off and hermetically close the box. This should be done every three months. Packages of guncotton stained brown or yellow, giving off nitric fumes, or showing other signs of decomposition, should be removed and immersed in water. If decomposition be far advanced, they should be removed to a safe place and burned. WHERE AND HOW TO PLACE CHARGES.