Reply #4: The Horror of the Heights [View All]

[Orsino]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horror_of_the_Heights

Joyce-Armstrong takes his monoplane to a height of 40,000 feet and is nearly hit by three meteors. It is then that he learns that his speculations are right: entire ecosystems (air-jungles) exist high in the atmosphere, and are inhabited by huge, gelatinous, semi-solid creatures. After going through a flock of jellyfish-like and snake-like beings, Joyce-Armstrong is attacked by a more solid-looking vulture-like creature, which he narrowly escapes from. He then returns to the ground.

The aviator writes he will be going up again to the air-jungle to bring back proof of his discoveries, but here the fragment ends, save for one last sentence which reads:

"Forty-three thousand feet. I shall never see earth again. They are beneath me, three of them. God help me; it is a dreadful death to die!"