would prove too lengthy. Suffice it to say, that we ran down a dog, overturned two carts (whose drivers, frightened at the sight of our enormous machine, turned to the left at the very last moment), upset a cow, and finally broke down a fence in trying to make a turn on soft and heavy soil. As for ourselves, in spite of our rubber hats, vests, and trousers, and the provisions of all kinds which we carried with us, we were in a condition which I prefer not to describe. My brother and I have been over some pretty rough ground in travelling—notably in India, in Japan, in Central Asia, and in the Sahara—but never were we so utterly tired out and so devoid of every similitude of humanity as when we reached Lyons.
In spite of all that, this carriage is a good vehicle. The accidents that happened to us were due to the fact that the machine had started without sufficient preparation and test. The proof of this is that, a few months later, in January 1897, the same carriage, in charge of my brother, after some modification and improvement, won in a brilliant manner the Marseilles-Nice-Turbie race, covering the 145 miles in 7 hours 45 minutes 9 seconds, a mean velocity of about eighteen miles an hour. This result is still more satisfactory if the exceptionally uneven and sinuous nature of the road is considered, as also the stops necessary to take in water and coke, and in fact that, without facing certain death, one dared not let the heavy vehicle coast on any of the heaviest down-grades.
It was on one of those down-grades that Charron, who was running a Panhard petroleum carriage, and who wanted to catch up with us at any cost, was upset at a turn. Charron and his machinist were thrown out, though they were not hurt at all, but the vehicle turned a complete somersault, and landed on its wheels — as was demonstrated in an undoubted way by the traces of gravel on the upper part of the carriage. It sustained no serious injury, except the destruction of the steering bar, which Charron repaired with a bit of wood. It returned to Fréjus without a stoppage of the motor.
