to reach him, pondering, meanwhile, on the accuracy of that particular gunner. As a matter of fact, few direct shell-hits on a balloon were recorded during the war, most of the balloons which were brought down having been accounted for by incendiary bullets from diving planes. Just as some sportsmen devote their energies to moose and elk and grizzlies while others specialize on smaller game, so some of the airplane pilots made a specialty of hunting “sausages,” and at this thrilling and highly perilous sport became amazingly expert. When the Crown Prince’s assaults on Verdun were at their height, I saw eight French aviators start out to bring down eight German balloons. Within less than thirty minutes seven of the _drachen_ had come down in flames—which shows that a balloonist was not a good life-insurance risk. The average life of an observation balloon on the Western Front was estimated to be about fifteen days. Sometimes it lasted only a few minutes. There is a record of an American balloon passing unscathed through the whole period of American activity on a busy sector, but it was generally considered that a balloon which has seen five or six months of ordinary non-war service has done its duty and is unsafe because of the deterioration of the fabric. In August, 1914, Germany had perhaps a hundred kite or “sausage” balloons, France and England a very few. The German type was known as the “Drachen,” and consisted of a gas-cylinder of rubberized cloth about sixty-five feet long and twenty-seven feet in diameter, with hemispherical ends. For stability a lobe, about a third of the diameter of the cylinder, was attached to the underbody of the gas-bag and curved up around the end. This lobe, made of a lighter fabric than the bag itself, automatically filled with air as the balloon ascended and acted as a rudder to hold the balloon in line. For further stability three tail-cups, one behind the other, with mouths open to the wind, were attached to the rear of the balloon. While the Drachen balloon was a rather clumsy affair and proved unstable in high winds, its importance as an adjunct to the artillery was early recognized by the Allies, for the results of its work daily became more apparent. Though the armies of France, England, Italy, and the United States made repeated experiments in an attempt to evolve a type which should possess greater stability and permit of higher altitudes being attained, it remained for Captain Caquot, of the French Army, to produce a balloon which possessed both of these qualities, his name now being used as a designation for the type which he invented and which was in general used by the Allied armies during the last year of the war. The Caquot received its greatest compliment from Germany when her army adopted this type of balloon and discarded the Drachen.