there was a greasy scum upon the
woodwork of the machine. Some infinitely fine organic matter appeared
to be suspended in the atmosphere. There was no life there. It was
inchoate and diffuse, extending for many square acres and then fringing
off into the void. No, it was not life. But might it not be the
remains of life? Above all, might it not be the food of life, of
monstrous life, even as the humble grease of the ocean is the food for
the mighty whale? The thought was in my mind when my eyes looked
upwards and I saw the most wonderful vision that ever man has seen.
Can I hope to convey it to you even as I saw it myself last Thursday?

"Conceive a jelly-fish such as sails in our summer seas, bell-shaped
and of enormous size--far larger, I should judge, than the dome of St.
Paul's. It was of a light pink colour veined with a delicate green,
but the whole huge fabric so tenuous that it was but a fairy outline
against the dark blue sky. It pulsated with a delicate and regular
rhythm. From it there depended two long, drooping, green tentacles,
which swayed slowly backwards and forwards. This gorgeous vision
passed gently with noiseless dignity over my head, as light and fragile
as a soap-bubble, and drifted upon its stately way.

"I had half-turned my monoplane, that I might look after this beautiful
creature, when, in a moment, I found myself amidst a perfect fleet of
them, of all sizes, but none so large as the first. Some were quite
small, but the majority about as big as an average balloon, and with
much the same curvature at the top. There was in them a delicacy of
texture and colouring which reminded me of the finest Venetian glass.
Pale shades of pink and green were the prevailing tints, but all had a
lovely iridescence where the sun shimmered through their dainty forms.
Some hundreds of them drifted past me, a wonderful fairy squadron of
strange unknown argosies 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 the