I came to a stretch of mountain that looked tolerably even, and decided to make a landing, for I was not only exhausted but ravenously hungry. I succeeded in alighting, and there, without even trying to loosen my wings, I squatted under them in the snow and ate several handfuls of food from the bundle strapped at my waist. The cold was terrific--far more than I had felt it in the air; and a moment later when I struggled to my feet and strove to ascend, I was within an ace of final disaster. So stiff had I grown even in that brief interval of rest that I came near crashing for want of a few sweeps of my wings to get me clear of the earth. Luckily, I had just strength enough to reach up and touch the power-lever. The broad wings answered faithfully to it, and within a few moments I was hurtling towards safety again as fast as ever. That was the last descent I was going to risk until I had done with flying for good. I knew that while I might yet remain in the air a long while, my strength was no longer to be trusted for purposes of rising again. Moreover, barring the danger of absolute collapse, those wings were the very best means of locomotion I could have wished, and might save me many weariful weeks of tramping over the pitiless heights. A wind rose with dawn, not like the tempest of the night, but the steady day-wind of summer, and on this I made marvellously good progress. I kept at barely a hundred feet from the mountain, and though there was no descent appreciable to the eye in that enormous elevated region, I knew by the rising temperature of the air that I was getting down. Beyond that, I knew little of what happened to me during that day. I flew on and on, in a sort of half coma. At times, I veritably believe, I was asleep, and had there been any more demanded of me than simply to rest on my wings, I must have assuredly come to grief. It was hunger that drove me down at last. I was now past the limits of weariness, but I was hungry as I had never known hunger before. How long I had been in the air I couldn't even guess from my own recollection of the day, but I remember being drowsily amazed to notice that the sun was now beginning to dip behind the highest peaks westward of me. Also, I had a hazy impression of having once or twice during the last hour caught glimpses in the distance of what might have been rude human habitations. The time was come to destroy my wings, and seek shelter and rest.