sibly travelling at a high rate of speed. Greasy tram lines arc also exceedingly bad, but as the car should be travelling slowly when these are encountered, accidents ought not to happen if proper care be used.
In passing over tram-lines they should be taken at a good angle, for if the crossing be cut too fine the wheels may drop into the lines and a slip result. Greasy macadam is bad if high speeds are attempted, but up to ten or twelve miles an hour there is seldom any difficulty in 'negotiating' it. Ice is the worst of all, but this condition occurs very seldom, and of course no attempt should be made to travel at any great speed over it. An account, however, of a drive under these circumstances is given by Mr. Mayhew in a recent issue of the Automobile Club's 'Notes and Notices,' and being of interest it is quoted:—
Mr. Mark Mayhew met with some exciting experiences on December 28th, when driving his twenty horse-power Panhard. After descending Aston Hill, and when within five miles of Oxford, he struck a strip of road which was solid ice, but which, owing to the thaw that had started, was running with water. He says—
Awful side-slip, hit side of road left, right, left, after which went straight again. One mile from Witney he noticed a sharp descent with a similarly treacherous surface. He had not time to pull up the car, so put the brakes on at the top of the hill, which stopped the driving wheels dead, while the car calmly glissaded to the bottom. When he got to the bottom he put in the clutch on the second speed, and essayed to run up the other side, but as soon as the momentum had fallen, the driving wheels began to slip, then the first speed was dropped in, but the car eventually stopped with the wheels revolving on the ice. Then, with the power still on, it slowly slid to the bottom of the valley backward. However, by getting some strips of sacking which he tied round the tyres, the summit was gained. It is suggested that the partial deflation of the back tyres might have helped Mr. Mayhew. Of course, the conditions were so exceptional that no provision is usually made for them. If they were common, it would certainly be necessary to have a sand box; in fact, an adaptation of the railway steam sand blast, but worked from the exhaust, would be necessary!
