ving the steering wheel to itself,
the balloon drifted over the Bois de Boulogne. As usual the cool air
from the wood caused the hydrogen in the balloon to contract and the
craft dropped until it appeared the voyage would end in the tree
tops. Hastily shifting his weights the aeronaut forced the prow of
the ship upwards to a sharp angle with the earth. Just at this
moment the reluctant engine started up again with such vigour that
for a moment the ship threatened to assume a perpendicular position,
pointing straight up in the sky. A cry went up from the spectators
below who feared a dire catastrophe was about to end a voyage which
promised success. But with incomparable _sang-froid_ the young
Brazilian manipulated the weights, restored the ship to the
horizontal again without stopping the engines, and reached the
finishing stake in time to win the prize. Soon after it was awarded
him the Brazilian Government presented him with another substantial
prize, together with a gold medal bearing the words: _Por ceos nunca
d'antes navegados_ ("Through heavens hitherto unsailed").

In a sense the reference to the heavens is a trifle over-rhetorical.
Santos-Dumont differed from all aviators (or pilots of airplanes)
and most navigators of dirigibles in always advocating the strategy
of staying near the ground. In his flights he barely topped the
roofs of the houses, and in his writings he repeatedly refers to the
sense of safety that came to him when he knew he was close to the
tree tops of a forest. This may have been due to the fact that in
his very first flight in a dirigible he narrowly escaped a fatal
accident due to flying too high. As he descended, the gas which had
expanded now contracted. The balloon began to collapse in the
middle. Cords subjected to unusual stress began to snap. The air
pump, which should have pumped the ballonet full of air to keep the
balloon rigid failed to work. Seeing that he was about to fall into
a field in which his drag rope was already trailing the imperilled
airman had a happy thought. Some boys were there flying kites. He
shouted to them to seize his rope and run against the wind. The
balloon responded to the new force like a kite. The rapidity of its
fall was checked, and its pilot landed with only a serious shaking.

But thereafter Santos-Dumont preached the maxim--rare among
airmen--"Keep near the ground. That way lies safety!" Most aviators
however, prefer the heights of the atmosphere,