The whole atmosphere was jubilant as we rose into its upper levels and thrilled with light and electricity; even unseen living forms from other stars mingled with the sunlight that supplied so much for the support of our being. There was not a cloud to mar the purity of the ether, inspired with wandering breaths of wind. We rose joyous and bright under the gleam of the sun, I alone having my exhilaration somewhat dashed by the consciousness of my laggard gait; for my limbs were not yet light enough, my arm and leg muscles not strong enough, to accomplish any but the briefest journey upon wings, and that in the most awkward and shambling way. I was borne in one of their faleenas or weight-transference flies; it was one of the smallest, yet I had room to move about freely in the car in spite of the baggage of the troop. It was not unlike a huge tropical butterfly that I had admired in a case in one of our museums; the car was long and narrow and pointed like a boat at either end; from each side stretched out wings that were enormous beside the body they carried; and these, rainbow-hued, seemed to fill the whole air through which we passed with a solid gleam, so quickly did they shuttle up and down; aft extended slantwise two great antennae-like shafts that moved hither and thither to defeat the baffling puffs of wind and so direct our flight; along the keel lay the engine that produced the beat of the wings, silent and motionless as if it were but a shaft that strengthened the framework. There was no vibration, in spite of the great speed of the faleena. A huge awning, so high above us as to be out of reach of the wings at their fullest stretch, seemed to hold us easily aloft at whatever level we desired, and to let us gently down whenever the wings beat slowly enough to be seen as they moved up and down. It was in one of these slow movements that I discovered the principle of these sails; they were made of the wonderful metal, irelium, and had its properties of lightness, tenuity, and strength; I had noticed as they flashed solidly through the air that there was an alternation in the flash of greater or less sheen; I now saw that each wing consisted of two fine plates of open scroll-work sliding over one another back and forth; in the upward stroke the holes were open so that the air passed easily through, and the whole expanse looked like a delicately reticulated fan; in the downward stroke the upper plate so slid over the lower that the apertures of both were completely closed, and the wing formed a solid sheet of metal. I afterwards saw how simply this was accomplished. The under irelium network had but one motion, that on the hinges attached to the side of the car, but it had grooves on its fore and aft edges; into these, corresponding projections on the upper network fitted, moving in them easily by means of small half-hidden wheels; this upper plate was attached to independent hinges on a long rod that