luntarily pulls back an imaginary joy-stick, the Pilot
moves the real one and places the machine at its best climbing angle.
Like a living thing it responds, and instantly leaves the ground,
clearing the hedge like a--well, like an Aeroplane with an excellent
margin of lift. Upwards it climbs with even and powerful lift, and the
familiar scenes below again gladden the eyes of the Pilot. Smaller and
more and more squat grow the houses and hills; more and more doll-like
appear the fields which are clearly outlined by the hedges; and soon the
country below is easily identified with the map. Now they can see the
river before them and a bay of the sea which must be crossed or skirted.
The fog still lingers along the course of the river and between the
hills, but is fast rolling away in grey, ghost-like masses. Out to sea
it obscures the horizon, making it difficult to be sure where water ends
and fog begins, and creating a strange, rather weird, effect by which
ships at a certain distance appear to be floating in space.

Now the Aeroplane is almost over the river, and the next instant it
suddenly drops into a "hole in the air." With great suddenness it
happens, and for some two hundred feet it drops nose-down and tilted
over sideways; but the Pilot is prepared and has put his craft on an
even keel in less time than it takes to tell you about it; for well he
knows that he must expect such conditions when passing over a shore or,
indeed, any well-defined change in the composition of the earth's
surface. Especially is this so on a hot and sunny day, for then the warm
surface of the earth creates columns of ascending air, the speed of the
ascent depending upon the composition of the surface. Sandy soil, for
instance, such as borders this river produces a quickly ascending column
of air, whereas water and forests have not such a marked effect. Thus,
when our Aeroplane passed over the shore of the river, it suddenly lost
the lift due to the ascending air produced by the warm sandy soil, and
it consequently dropped just as if it had fallen into a hole.

Now the Aeroplane is over the bay and, the sea being calm, the Pilot
looks down, down through the water, and clearly sees the bottom,
hundreds of feet below the surface. Down through the reflection of the
blue sky and clouds, and one might think that is all, but it isn't. Only
those who fly know the beauties of the sea as viewed from above; its
dappled pearly tints; its soft dark bl