An Exciting Race.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 51, 29 July 1885, Page 2

An Exciting Race.

s; • '•An excitrag.vace took plaeevecently from Dover to London • between the Continental mail express train. and a carrier pigeon" conveying^^ aidponmept of art urgent nature for the French' policp. ( Tj*e rails, carriages, and i en-f ginepf the, express train, .-were, as^; might he" expected, -of; the best .-possible., construction, for; power an4f speed., The pigeon, which ;Havtly and Sons bf^oofivicli, -f lid . " homed" when a few -weeks 01d ..t0 a building m Cannon-street, City, was also ; of the* tbe^t 5 bree3 -of homing pigeons, - Wp'wtf « Bel£iaV'voy&- ' geura." The bird was tossed.through .the, railway carriage window by'a French official .as the train moved fi;oni the Admiralty, pier, -the wind being west and thevatmosphere hazy, hut with the ,sfrn* shining. For ! upwards of a. min'tite ;the* parrier ! pigeon circled rpuriU-to ah aJtitudeof about nalf-a-iiii|e,.'f.'..anti vfh>n sailed away toward* X-oridon. ':• By ibis time tbo train, which carried the European mails; and was timed not to stop between the stations ot Dover and CannPnstr-eet, had .got up to ifuli speed;, ancj was tearing awayafc; the. rate oT , : nailer an : houn towardsj LondpnJ' 4 '- The "'"odfl.s, aY ■starting seemed against thebirdV an^ the railway officials, .jii:stly .prpfid and cpp.fi dent m the strength pi the iron horse, predicted that the little aerial messenger Mjould fail; --but the race was not Ito the strong. The carrier pi«<>on, agpopnas. ii; aacei'tMined its beaiirigs. i ft*Ok it he nearest route, m a direction ri|f d vi«4iy ' between ' Maidstone - and j3i.Mjingbonrne, ! the distance as tiie crovv; ;flie«, .. between . i>6ver ; and Lojfi^on, being 70 miles; and -by. rail >76^ mitesi As the Continental mail.* express cinio puffing into Cannonstreet >t.a bi< n, the pigeon had been home twenty minutes, having beaten her. Majesty's royal mail by a time j allowance representing eighteen miles.