DIFFERENT WAYS OF SWIMMING 



them along easily, and sets them down on everything. 

 On the road before the car a gust of wind brings the 

 sand, spreads it out like flowing water, then chases it 

 away as quickly as it brought it. Here is dry, shifting 

 land, where life is sparse, where creatures find little 

 upon which to subsist. It is a space boundless and 

 without apparent limit, rendered vaster by the silence, 

 and over the flat earth there is only the sky. Both 

 earth and sky are empty. 



These poverty-stricken places are, nevertheless, the 

 domain of bright, abundant light. The rays of the 

 sun come down upon them without let or hindrance, 

 losing none of their intensity, and the traveller must 

 be warned and act accordingly. This is not the 

 scintillating splendour of the sea, in which the water 

 reflects in its little waves the rays of light which fall 

 upon it. There are no flashings of light upon this 

 luminous soil. The light touches it directly and 

 completely, bathing and surrounding all things; even 

 the shadows, fine, light and violet, have a brightness. 

 The eye can see the dancing tremor of heated layers 

 of air in contact with the soil, where the rays of light 

 diverge, producing a mirage, and, from moment to 

 moment, alter the perspectives of everything within 

 sight. When the wind does not blow, nothing moves 

 except this mobile air. There is nothing to see. 

 Now and again, perhaps, one does catch a glimpse 

 of a human being, seeming strangely out of place, an 

 occasional domesticated animal, but very rarely a wild 

 one. This empire of sovereign light is a realm of 

 barrenness, of desolation, of perpetual repose. 



The salt lake which it borders is in striking contrast. 

 Its animation, its continual change, are directly opposed 

 to the dryness and immobility of its surroundings. 

 The light of day penetrating the shallow water fosters 

 the growth of a host of green, bushy plants. The 

 heat enables all this vegetation to grow in profusion. 

 In their turn the animals benefit from these favourable 

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