They curved about towards the south.

They drove with a slight list to leeward, and with a slow alternation of movement, first a short, sharp ascent and then a long downward glide that was very swift and pleasing.

During these downward glides the propeller was inactive altogether.

These ascents gave Graham a glorious sense of successful effort; the descents through the rarefied air were beyond all experience.
He wanted never to leave the upper air again.
For a time he was intent upon the landscape that ran swiftly northward beneath him.

Its minute, clear detail pleased him exceedingly.