The Log of the Flying Fish

Four well-travelled men in a London club find a fresh challenge in the problem of controlled flight. Professor Heinrich von Schalckenberg argues that an aerial vessel needs the size, strength and means of propulsion of a ship. Sir Reginald Elphinstone, Cyril Lethbridge and Lieutenant Edward Mildmay join the discussion, weighing his ideas against the limitations of balloons. Harry Collingwood gives this adventure a starting point in scientific argument and the restless interests of explorers.

Later, the Flying Fish carries the party into polar country, where mammoths become specimens for study and preservation. Mildmay recovers from an injury under the professor's care, while Sir Reginald and Lethbridge prepare to walk to a distant tableland. Their equipment, food supplies and expectations of camping receive close attention. The novel brings speculative machinery together with hunting and the daily arrangements of an expedition, offering readers a view of how technological invention and adventurous travel meet in early science fiction.