Then it was towed past a battery of artillery. Twelve shots were fired at it; and, out of the dozen, one hit was recorded. This was not a good result, from the gunner’s point of view. In this test, too, conditions favoured the men at the guns. To begin with, they expected their target, and knew from which direction it would appear. In the second place, the target was, in comparison with an aeroplane, moving much more slowly than the flying machine would have done; and, in the third place, the kite was towed in a perfectly-straight line, and was not pursuing an erratic course, as an aeroplane would certainly do—in the efforts of the pilot to escape being hit—were it under fire. And yet, even with these points in their favour, the gunners achieved but one hit in a dozen shots. It is possible to cite another instance, in this connection—that of a series of tests carried out, in American waters, from a warship. Here, again, the target was a box-kite, and it was flown above the vessel at an altitude of about 800 feet. Ten blue-jackets were then formed up upon the deck; and they fired three volleys at this representation of an aeroplane. The bullets, in the first two volleys, all went wide of the mark. In the third, however, the box-kite was hit. Here, again, although conditions favoured the riflemen, they failed to obtain satisfactory results. During the three volleys, the box-kite was flown at an unvarying height. This was a point very greatly in their favour. In actual warfare, had they been firing at an aeroplane, the machine would, probably, have been travelling at a speed of sixty miles an hour or more; and it would, therefore, have presented a different range, at each volley fired. Another experiment, carried out from an American battleship, is also of interest. In this case, a plunging kite was sent up to a specified height, and 160 rounds were fired at it with rifles. Although the kite swung about a good deal, it did not vary its altitude. In connection with this test—in which picked shots were employed—40 hits, out of the 160 rounds, were recorded. As a result of the tests recorded above, and of others less interesting, the Secretary of the United States Navy was led to make the pronouncement that no aeroplane could, with any degree of safety, approach nearer than 1000 yards of a position protected by rifle-fire. As opposed to this view, the opinion of experts at the Hythe School of Musketry is that it would be more or less a waste of ammunition to attempt to "wing," with rifle-fire, an aeroplane 3000 feet high. In the practical work of the aeroplane in Tripoli, machines flying less than 2000 feet high were not damaged by rifle-fire.