“Then I constructed a large machine patterned after the first model, and with the assistance of three cowboy friends personally made a number of flights in the steep mountains near San Juan (a hundred miles distant). In making these flights I simply took the aëroplane and made a running jump. These tests were discontinued after I put my foot in a squirrel hole, in landing, and hurt my leg. PLATE XXI. [Illustration: MONTGOMERY’S AËROPLANE.] “The following year I commenced the work on a larger scale, by engaging aëronauts to ride my aëroplane dropped from balloons. During this work I used five hot-air balloons and one gas balloon, five or six aëroplanes, three riders—Maloney, Wilkie and Defolco—and had sixteen applicants on my list and had a training station to prepare any when I needed them. “Exhibitions were given in Santa Cruz, San José, Santa Clara, Oakland and Sacramento. The flights that were made, instead of being haphazard affairs, were in the order of safety and development. In the first flight of an aëronaut the aëroplane was so arranged that the rider had little liberty of action, consequently he could make only a limited flight. In some of the first flights, the aëroplane did little more than settle in the air. But as the rider gained experience in each successive flight I changed the adjustments, giving him more liberty of action, so he could obtain longer flights and more varied movements in the flights. But in none of the flights did I have the adjustments so that the riders had full liberty, as I did not consider that they had the requisite knowledge and experience necessary for their safety; and hence, none of my aëroplanes were launched so arranged that the rider could make adjustments necessary for a full flight.