as of some great dragon of olden times rousing itself from slumber to
devour the peaceful villages which its arms encircle.

And the Pilot and Observer fly on and on, seeing these things and many
others which baffle my poor skill to describe--things, dear Reader, that
you shall see, and poets sing of, and great artists paint in the days
to come when the Designer has captured Efficiency. Then, and the time
is near, shall you see this beautiful world as you have never seen it
before, the garden it is, the peace it breathes, and the wonder of it.

The Pilot, flying on, is now anxiously looking for the railway line
which midway on his journey should point the course. Ah! There it is
at last, but suddenly (and the map at fault) it plunges into the
earth! Well the writer remembers when that happened to him on a long
'cross-country flight in the early days of aviation. Anxiously he
wondered "Are tunnels always straight?" and with what relief, keeping on
a straight course, he picked up the line again some three miles farther
on!

Now at last the Pilot sees the sea, just a streak on the north-eastern
horizon, and he knows that his flight is two-thirds over. Indeed, he
should have seen it before, but the air is none too clear, and he is not
yet able to discern the river which soon should cross his path. As he
swiftly speeds on the air becomes denser and denser with what he fears
must be the beginning of a sea-fog, perhaps drifting inland along the
course of the river. Now does he feel real anxiety, for it is the DUTY
of a Pilot to fear fog, his deadliest enemy. Fog not only hides the
landmarks by which he keeps his course, but makes the control of the
Aeroplane a matter of the greatest difficulty. He may not realize
it, but, in keeping his machine on an even keel, he is unconsciously
balancing it against the horizon, and with the horizon gone he is
lost indeed. Not only that, but it also prevents him from choosing his
landing-place, and the chances are that, landing in a fog, he will smash
into a tree, hedge, or building, with disastrous results. The best and
boldest pilot 'wares a fog, and so this one, finding the conditions
becoming worse and yet worse, and being forced to descend lower and
lower in order to keep the earth within view, wisely decides to choose a
landing-place while there is yet time to do so.

Throttling down the power of the engine he spirals downwards, keenly
observing the country below. There are plenty