362 DESCRIPTION OF A GREAT SAND STORM. 



Lauture, an authority of considerable weight in these 

 matters, has recorded these facts, while we have ventured 

 to assign the reasons for them which we make bold 

 to think are borne out by scientific data. 



One of the remarkable features connected with these 

 storms is the extreme suddenness with which they 

 sometimes come on. The following account of one of 

 them is abridged and translated from the description 

 given by Count D'Escayrac de Lauture 



" Travelling during a lovely night in the month of June, 

 in the desert, about three days' journey from Suakim, I was 

 enjoying the striking clearness of the heavens, where no cloud 

 obscured a single star. I was admiring the profound calm 

 of the atmosphere, when all of a sudden the scene changed ; 

 a black cloud showed itself in the East, rising with frightful 

 rapidity, and in a few moments covered one half of the sky. 

 A sudden squall, of extreme violence, covered us with sand ; 

 and pebbles, the size of peas, beat upon our faces. Soon 

 the whole heavens were covered with an immense cloud of 

 sand, enveloping us in profound obscurity, which made it 

 impossible for us to find our way. We had carefully wrapped 

 up our faces, but we could not open our eyes without getting 

 them filled with sand. The camels groaned and knelt at 

 almost every step. I succeeded with difficulty in getting my 

 men together, whom the obscurity, and the restiveness of 

 their camels, had separated; and although the most distant 

 was but a few paces away they ran the greatest risk of getting 

 lost, my voice, which I exerted with all my strength, being 

 hardly audible. We stopped, and the camels at once stretched 

 themselves out upon the sand, while the men were so 

 harrassed by the hail which pelted upon them, filling their 

 eyes, noses, and mouths with sand, that I did not attempt to 

 have the animals unloaded. Sheltering myself against my 

 hygeen, whose high saddle afforded some slight protection, 

 I enveloped my head with a long Tripoli shawl, which formed 



