FOUR branches have carried out balloon races with great success this year.

At St. Albans, where the race was being held for the third time, about a thousand balloons were sent off, of which eighty-five were returned.

The winning balloon came down near Antwerp, in Belgium, and the winner of the second prize on the French coast, between Calais and Dunkerque.

The other eighty-three came down in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. The race was not without its humours. One old lady, having bought and released her balloon, disappeared for a time. She returned, rather breathless, to say that she had followed it as far as the Abbey, but could go no farther; and how was she to know where it came down ? The Clapham branch held a balloon race, for the second tune, in connexion with a fun fair. Its winning balloon came down near Melksham, in Wiltshire.

At Eastbourne many balloons were sent up, and fourteen labels were re- turned. These fourteen balloons had all crossed the Channel. Thirteen had come down in France or Belgium. The fourteenth reached Germany.

A balloon race was again one of the events at the Quoile regatta, Northern Ireland, which was again in aid of the Downpatrick branch of the Institution.

A balloon from Manchester, in 1933, got as iar as Germany, but the record still belongs to the St. Albans balloon which, at the race in 1935, travelled 807 miles, and came down in Poland*1 1 For previous races see The Life-boat for September, 1935, and March, 1936..