DUST AT JOHANNESBERG. 141 



While we see grave reason to doubt that a force 

 of living men could ever be actually overwhelmed and 

 buried alive by a sandstorm (seeing that they can 

 shift their position as the sand collects, and so can 

 thus always prevent the unpleasant alternative of 

 allowing it to smother them), we do not desire in the 

 slightest degree to minimize the exceedingly unpleasant 

 and even serious consequences, which a great dust 

 storm may entail. Such a storm may occur on any dry 

 plain, for instance at Johannesberg, the great gold- 

 mining city in the Transvaal, where dust storms are very 

 common, the dust was always so great that we felt 

 inclined to name the town " The City of Dust"- 

 residents have informed us that they have often known 

 (in the earlier days of the city, when the streets were 

 worse than they are now) immense Cape waggons 

 drawn by 18 oxen, to be entirely hidden by dust from 

 the view of persons standing on the sidewalk, while 

 passing along the middle of the street. 



This we can quite believe, for during one dust storm 

 which occurred while we were there, everything was 

 hidden from sight at a very short distance, and the 

 dust clouds entirely filled the streets, up to and above 

 the roofs of the houses. The thing lasted only two or 

 three hours, however, and was a nuisance rather than 

 a danger. 



But sometimes matters prove more serious, especially 

 when the storm lasts for a considerable period. A 

 party, for instance, crossing the Colorado Desert in 

 America, thus relate their experiences: 



" We were overtaken by one of those dreadful sand storms, 

 which prevail in this desert. The day was intensely hot, 

 and the most oppressive silence reigned around. Suddenly 



