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 widely dilating 

 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. 



