gosies of the sky--creatures whose forms and substance were so
attuned to these pure heights that one could not conceive anything so
delicate within actual sight or sound of earth.

"But soon my attention was drawn to a new phenomenon--the serpents of the
outer air. These were long, thin, fantastic coils of vapour-like
material, which turned and twisted with great speed, flying round and
round at such a pace that the eyes could hardly follow them. Some of
these ghost-like creatures were twenty or thirty feet long, but it was
difficult to tell their girth, for their outline was so hazy that it
seemed to fade away into the air around them. These air-snakes were of a
very light grey or smoke colour, with some darker lines within, which
gave the impression of a definite organism. One of them whisked past my
very face, and I was conscious of a cold, clammy contact, but their
composition was so unsubstantial that I could not connect them with any
thought of physical danger, any more than the beautiful bell-like
creatures which had preceded them. There was no more solidity in their
frames than in the floating spume from a broken wave.

"But a more terrible experience was in store for me. Floating downwards
from a great height there came a purplish patch of vapour, small as I saw
it first, but rapidly enlarging as it approached me, until it appeared to
be hundreds of square feet in size. Though fashioned of some
transparent, jelly-like substance, it was none the less of much more
definite outline and solid consistence than anything which I had seen
before. There were more traces, too, of a physical organization,
especially two vast shadowy, circular plates upon either side, which may
have been eyes, and a perfectly solid white projection between them which
was as curved and cruel as the beak of a vulture.

"The whole aspect of this monster was formidable and threatening, and it
kept changing its colour from a very light mauve to a dark, angry purple
so thick that it cast a shadow as it drifted between my monoplane and the
sun. On the upper curve of its huge body there were three great
projections which I can only describe as enormous bubbles, and I was
convinced as I looked at them that they were charged with some extremely
light gas which served to buoy-up the misshapen and semi-solid mass in
the rarefied air. The creature moved swiftly along, keeping pace easily
with the monoplane, and for twenty miles or more it f