pping wings had made me heavier than I
thought, but presently I was in lighter cloud, and soon had cleared the
first layer. There was a second--opal-coloured and fleecy--at a great
height above my head, a white unbroken ceiling above, and a dark unbroken
floor below, with the monoplane labouring upwards upon a vast spiral
between them. It is deadly lonely in these cloud-spaces. Once a great
flight of some small water-birds went past me, flying very fast to the
westwards. The quick whirr of their wings and their musical cry were
cheery to my ear. I fancy that they were teal, but I am a wretched
zoologist. Now that we humans have become birds we must really learn to
know our brethren by sight.

"The wind down beneath me whirled and swayed the broad cloud-plain. Once
a great eddy formed in it, a whirlpool of vapour, and through it, as down
a funnel, I caught sight of the distant world. A large white biplane was
passing at a vast depth beneath me. I fancy it was the morning mail
service betwixt Bristol and London. Then the drift swirled inwards again
and the great solitude was unbroken.

"Just after ten I touched the lower edge of the upper cloud-stratum. It
consisted of fine diaphanous vapour drifting swiftly from the westward.
The wind had been steadily rising all this time and it was now blowing a
sharp breeze--twenty-eight an hour by my gauge. Already it was very
cold, though my altimeter only marked nine thousand. The engines were
working beautifully, and we went droning steadily upwards. The cloud-
bank was thicker than I had expected, but at last it thinned out into a
golden mist before me, and then in an instant I had shot out from it, and
there was an unclouded sky and a brilliant sun above my head--all blue
and gold above, all shining silver below, one vast glimmering plain as
far as my eyes could reach. It was a quarter past ten o'clock, and the
barograph needle pointed to twelve thousand eight hundred. Up I went and
up, my ears concentrated upon the deep purring of my motor, my eyes busy
always with the watch, the revolution indicator, the petrol lever, and
the oil pump. No wonder aviators are said to be a fearless race. With
so many things to think of there is no time to trouble about oneself.
About this time I noted how unreliable is the compass when above a
certain height from earth. At fifteen thousand feet mine was pointing
east and a point south. The sun and the wind gave me my true bea