36 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



in the illimitable coils of the dune-tract. The 

 latter at once seized and held the attention. 



When day had fully dissipated the faint 

 haze of morning we endeavoured to appraise 

 the contours of this gross, amorphous entity, 

 — for the concept that it was one and in- 

 divisible had gradually but irresistibly formed. 

 It grew more and more enormous; more gross 

 and inimical. Irregular and convoluted ridges 

 arose from it here and there ; it appeared to be 

 absolutely bare of vegetation. In the centre 

 was piled a humped, bulging mass; out of this 

 Bantom Berg lifted its clean-cut cone of 

 granite, — a soaring sphynx still waiting for the 

 carver's chisel. Here and there columns of 

 dust — slender beneath but widelv dilatino- 

 above at an enormous height, stalked slowly 

 over the body of the prone monster, marking 

 each the path of a miniature whirlwind. As 

 we drew near, the face of the dune tract once 

 more became indefinite and complicated; for a 

 time the eye could not follow nor appraise its 

 details. But suddenly the thing explained 

 itself; from the central mass, the prostrate 

 carcase of the obscene creature, a number of 

 league-long tentacles, consisting of sand 

 dunes, extended. These were thick at the 

 base, but they tapered away to nothingness. 



