the machinery necessary for driving the screw could not be made
light enough to be really suitable. Thus there was not much heard about
steerable balloons until some years later, when M. Santos Dumont began
his cruises--and many strange adventures he has had.

Instead of the electric engine used by the Tissandiers, he employed the
small petrol engine out of a motor tricycle. With this he started on
his aerial voyages. But before we follow him we must look at his ship
for a moment. From each end of the long balloon he allows a cord to
hang, supporting a small weight. These are to enable him to alter his
course upward or downward. If he wishes to travel upwards, he pulls into
the car, by means of a thin cord, the weight which is hanging in front.
This, of course, allows the head of the balloon to rise, at the same
time changing the angle of the screw in the rear so that it drives the
balloon upward. When he pulls the rear weight into the car, the reverse
takes place. The car, the engine, and the screw are all suspended from
the silk envelope by piano wires, so that it looks, from the ground, as
though M. Santos Dumont were moving about in a spider's web.

On one of the first cruises the balloon behaved very well while floating
at a great height, but when he descended into denser atmosphere, the gas
contracted in the long thin bag, and he saw with horror that it was
doubling up 'like a pocket-knife.' This made some of the cords so much
tighter than others that at any moment they might cut through the silk
and send him to the earth like a stone. Yet it was no use throwing out
ballast, though to rise into thinner atmosphere might have put the
balloon right again. 'I _must_ descend sooner or later,' thought the
aeronaut, 'so why not now?'

Beneath him lay a grassy stretch of country on which a number of boys
were flying their kites. As he rapidly drew nearer, M. Santos Dumont,
leaning from his basket, called to them to seize the guide-rope, which
had already reached the ground, and _run with it as fast as they could
against the wind_. The boys were sharp-witted, and obeyed at once. The
speed of the descent was checked by the rush of wind, and the voyager
landed in safety.

Misadventures of this sort have only increased the keenness with which
M. Santos Dumont pursues his studies. The principal triumph he has yet
secured was won some three years ago, when he steered his balloon round
the Eiffel Tower and back to the starti