LITTLE HOPE FELT.

One thing which makes the authorities chary of attaching great importance to reports of airship lights is that one observer saw the vessel during the hours of daylight. It is now considered certain that the Dixmude is no longer in the air, and interest is focussed principally on the question whether she came down in the Mediterranean or in the desert. In the former case there would be little hope of saving either vessel or crew. If, on the other hand, she came down in the desert there is a chance that the crew, at any rate, may be saved, for aeroplanes are carrying out a widespread reconnaissance over inhospitable regions, in which such a wreck might lie for weeks without being seen by a single human being.

If it should have happened that the Dixmude made a forced descent in the desert, it is assumed that her crew would be able to live for some days on the reserve rations of water, tinned beef, and biscuits which were carried in addition to ordinary rations sufficient for six days. There were also on board a parachute and a lifebelt for each member of the crew. Many people are therefore clinging to the hope that the crew, having landed in some remote place, are still alive, and, although without means of communication, may be marching towards the nearest military post or settlement. A writer in the Matin expresses astonishment that no news of the vessel should have been received even after her wireless equipment failed, for he suggests that in such a case the commander would no doubt have dropped written messages at regular intervals, and one or more of these would surely have been picked up and taken into a military post. The vessel also carried a number of light bombs for signalling, but there is no trace of any of these having been dropped. In spite of all theories, therefore, tending to show that the vessel, or at any rate her crew, may still be safe, the facts as they are known incline the public to entertain the worst fears.