FRANCE. 63 



and range finders. This course is especially intended to 

 produce instructors for the schools, etc., mentioned above. 



Course No. 2 lasts one month, from October 1 to October 31. 

 It is confined to instruction in the care and preservation of 

 the service rifle. This course is especially intended to give 

 to the regimental range officers (capitaines de tir) the neces- 

 sary technical mechanical instruction. 



REGIMENTAL SCHOOLS OF TARGET PRACTICE. 



In each regiment or separate command these schools are 

 organized to teach the officers and noncommissioned officers 

 by lectures, exercises, and questions what each should know. 

 The lecturers and instructors are generally captains who have 

 come from the Ecole Normale de Tir. The officers are taught 

 by regiment or (more frequently) by battalion ; the noncom- 

 missioned officers and men, by company; the lieutenant 

 colonel is charged with supervision of these schools. 



The course embraces armament and ammunition, esti- 

 mating distances, range finders, and the various prescribed 

 drills and practices. 



CLASSIFICATION OF MARKSMEN, COMPETITIONS, RECOJMPENSES. 



Infantry. — At the close of the applied practice, on a day 

 fixed by the colonel, the annual classification takes place. 

 Enlisted men who have made a total of 36 points or more in 

 the applied practice form the first class ; those who have made 

 less than this, the second class; those who, in preliminary 

 practice, have not qualified for applied practice, the third 

 class. 



At the end of the season a practical examination, ordered 

 by the colonels or generals, is held to see what may be the 

 results of the season's work in each company. 



The examination consists of applied or individual combat 

 practice for the first and second classes united; preliminary 

 practice for the third class, and, finally, collective practice 

 for the whole company. 



All the men not in hospital must be present. No classifica- 

 tion is made as a result of this examination ; indeed, there is 

 no classification whatever of companies in the regiment, or 

 of regiments, etc., according to skill in shooting; the only 

 classification is that of the men given above. 



