DESERT WHIRLWINDS AND MIRAGE. 35 



started in pursuit, and having succeeded in catching two 

 goats, Albert acted as milkman again most success- 

 fully. 



On these occasions a little wooden barrel, with a 

 padlock, intended for carrying water for personal use, 

 proves a valuable companion, for it is used now for_^ 

 carryingYwhisky, than which nothing is better to give a >~ 

 little tone to new milk to prevent its disagreeing with the 

 weary traveller. The sport has been very varied to-day 

 gazelles, jackals, hares, sand-grouse, plover, and doves 

 being amongst the killed and wounded ; and also a tiny 

 species of antelope, hardly bigger than a hare, and 

 probably not so heavy, named * Dik-dik/ which was the 

 first we had seen, and was killed with shot by Vivian. ^ 



Since our departure whirl winds of sand have been more i 

 or less seen every day, but to-day the wind has been 

 more gusty, and the whirlwinds more numerous, and 

 particularly grand, travelling along at great speed, and 

 ascending to such a height that their points became 

 lost in space, as if they were en route to make new 

 worlds. .^ 



The mirage also was more than usually observable, * 

 and so distinct were the reflections of the distant rocks 

 that it seemed almost incredible that they were not 

 surrounded by water. Baker (vide ' Nile Tributaries 

 of Abyssinia ') graphically records an interesting story 



I) 2 



