FN oS ie TP Oe aS) VOLUME XLIX 2G >, NUMBER ONE ON =v Tae NATIONAL OS GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE JANUARY, 1926 G 5 jv @ CONTENTS TWELVE PAGES OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN FULL COLOR On the Trail of the Air Mail With 98: Tlustrations LIEUTENANT J. PARKER VAN ZANDT Man's Feathered Friends of Longest Standing With 35 Tilustrations ELISHA HANSON Pigeons of Resplendent Plumage 12 Paintings from Lite HASHIME MURAYAMA Measuring the Sun's Heat and Forecasting the Weather With 16 [lustrations Cc, G. ABBOT PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY HUBBARD MEMORIAL HALL WASHINGTON, D.C.Sas MARTYR to a “lost came" iy the woman who sirives for cleanliness with carpet beater, broom and dusteloth, Though she invest het every ounce of strength, her every hour of time, haw far from satisfactory are the results! For much of the dangerous, destructive dirt which ruins her rugs still lies einheddled deep in the nap after each sweeping. The age of beooms anid carpet beaters long ispast! In thieic place has come The Hoover—Scevant ro the Home—that your home and that of every housewife maybe kent seamaculately clean. aR irae tienes oct bon While it saves even more of your strength and time than do most cleaners, The Hoow also saves your rugs. wenn Hi dt BEATS + tHE HOOVER coMPANY Fis eldest and lavgeei males of slectric claaness = the Mooeys ls oly recs gp iy a perni wporRoye Se the santh penile fmame pt the Fig trove the Bor rn! veut aie ne she ductal bw Unlike any other cleaner, it provides you every cleaning method that you need in order to make your rugs wenr longer and retain their beauty. ‘As you wlide it emily,stowly, back and forth, The Hoover beats your cugs—and rugs need beating, ae you can prove’. . Itsweeps your russ, and suctioncteans. Its cemuarke able dusting tools do all your dusting, dustlessly. With case and speed your tasks are thoroughly accomplished. There is time for leisure; and the cleanliness of your home is an endless source of pride, Own a Hoover! For only $6.25 down any Authorized Hoover ‘Dealer will make de- livery, complete. See ‘him today! as it Cleans ANTON. O16 dda ot Hemilion, Ou as it Sweeps Noe THVor. XLIX, Nos 1 WASHINGTON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC “MAGAZINE Sere sa eee nea See I a a ON THE TRAIL OF THE AIR MAIL A Narrative of the Experiences of the Flying Couriers Who Relay the Mail Across America at a Speed of More than 2,000 Miles a Day By Lrevr. J. Parker Vax Zanpv, U.S. Aumy Arr Srevice Aerie sepme: Tae Aérial Photagraphs Taken by Capt AW, HEN | said 1 would die a remarked! Benedick, wv to his Beatrice, hink | should live till 1 were Aiteraft, many t good citizen will affirm, no dont bave their ise in warfare; hut, as for hin.and his affairs. they are a thing apart ‘ew faets in time, however, sweep he most stubhers prejitdices. There iz tevoltitionary fact abroad in the land aircraft have yone to work, And the lion is waking to find itself fast wed fnew handmaid of progress—the United States Transcontinental Air Mail Service, PRONE sift AIS IN TIRE ‘The story of this great overhead, sky- trail linking East and West, along which, through storm or calm, in dark~ i a score of winged couriers relay th jinblic mails across three thoti- sand miles. af continent in less than a dav and a half, isa modern ranance of trans- portation as fascinating as any that comes lo ns ont of the colorful past. ft is the undying spirit of the Old Fronticr affaine again, that testiess torch on mare . Stevens for the GS. are were Neri Goairinie Matavime once borne by Daniel Boone and Borne ville, the heritage from: two hundred 7 jen Of an untamed borers Jand. ft is the spirit that urged the hy. ging caravans along the old Oregon ‘Prat andl spurred on the gulkint riers of the Pony Express. Tt is the quickened tem- per horn out of the Winning of the West. that smoklers in the blood of every. te American—that is the most’) American thing in all Ame Tait picture it for cold December night pmiries of Wy nteself. A bitterly in the great splanil ‘The air 38 thick with swirling snow driven by a winter gale that sweens dows ont of the hi hidden far behind the somber ettr the night, From the lighthouse tewer at the enme Air Mail Field, the great rotating beacon light ceaselessly flings ite multi- million ‘candlepower beam against the e- crmuching horizon, piercing the snow- filled air for a little way, glinting an in stant on the ice-laden telephane wires leading into town, and fleeting acenss the temporary Kean-to shelters for the planes, where a disastrous fire had gu hangars a few weeks befcre, and minus 36 degrees,