HOW IT FEELS TO FLY ABOVE HAVE found the effect of high-i.e., rarefied-air to be felt slightly at about 10,000 feet, increasing with the altitude. Breathing becomes affected, respiration shorter and quicker, there is a curious oppressive sensation and a get very high without feeling giddy, and after returning from a flight to 12,000 feet I had palpitation, which lasted until the following day. In consequence I had to abandon high flying until treatment got me fit again. This is a powerful machine, and many of them were constructed for the United States Army. bulging feeling in the head until the height of about 20,000 feet is reached. I am told by a medical friend who has made rather a study of the subject that there is always a risk of a sudden collapse, and oxygen should be used whether the aviator feels fit or not. Of course, the effect felt varies considerably with individuals and with the state of one's health. About eighteen months ago I suffered slightly with my heart, and found I could not I have made a number of high flights and have felt no ill effects whatsoever; in fact, I find the more one gets accustomed to going up high the less the effects are felt. I am told that this also is the case in mountaineering. I can remember the unpleasantness of my first flight to 15,000 feet. It was very marked, especially the pain experienced in the drum of the ears on descending. The fact that a flight now to 21,000 or 22.000 feet does not have so much effect I put down entirely to acclimatization. I use oxygen as a precaution when ascending beyond 20,000 feet, for the previously mentioned reason. A small bottle is carried, fitted with a special reducing valve, which is fixed in the fuselage within easy reach of the hand. No special regulation is required, as it is set to pass only the necessary amount of gas into the face mask, which acts as a mixing chamber, with its inlet and outer air valve. The apparatus weighs sixteen pounds, and contains sufficient oxygen for one hour's continuous use. After reaching 20,000 feet I find it only necessary to use the oxygen intermittently, and accordingly I simply hold the mask, after turning on the gas, over the mouth and nose and take a few breaths of it, perhaps every half-minute. The effect to me is The effect to me is remarkable; most of the oppressing feeling vanishes, and, excepting for the unpleasant bulging feeling of the head, which you experience with a bad cold, the sensation is one of suddenly being again at ground-level. The only aftereffects upon landing from these high altitudes are that you seem to acquire a pretty good thirst, due, I suppose, to the use of oxygen. If the speed of climb continues to improve at the rate it has for the past three years, it looks as though aviators will become subject to what is known as 'caisson disease,' due, I am told, to the sudden reduction in atmospheric pressure, such as divers are subjected to when they come to the surface from a great depth, owing to the nitrogen, which has been absorbed by the system, in proportion to the atmospheric density, forcing itself too rapidly at any lower pressure from the system."-CAPT. B. C. HUCKS. IT "OLD BRADLEY'S" TALE was late afternoon, the sun was relentlessly slipping lower and lower, and the shadows were stretching themselves out longer and longer across the clipped lawn. "We'll be ever so late," whispered Nancy, happily. "It's almost tea time. What will nurse do?" "I'm sure I don't care. Why do you always bother about her?" returned Peter, loftily. It was all very well for Peter to be haughty; he was three years older, and, say what you will, it's different with boys. The children scurried along as fast as they could, over the broad lawn, through the garden, until they came to the garage, where they dropped panting at the feet of an old man who was sitting on an upturned box, near enough the open door to catch the odor of gasolene, which he sniffed wistfully from time to time. He was grumbling to himself: "That boy of mine's a lazy goodfor-nothing. Don't know how these machines 'd ever get even oiled right 'f I didn't keep an eye on him.” "Hello, Bradley!" The children had flung themselves in an attitude of worshipful adoration on the ground. "We're going to catch it for this, but we haven't had a story for three days, and you've got to tell us one right now, matter what the beastly nurse no does." The old man continued muttering about his worthless son and Mr. Archie's plane. "Father says," the children continued, breathlessly, “that your fingers can see more than most people's eyes. And |