?4)0 HISTORY OF 



These sands are so fine, and driven wdth such \-io!ence, that 

 tliey penetrate every where, even into chests, be they shut never 

 so closely. If these vidnds happen to continue for any length oi 

 time, they produce epidemic diseases, and are often followed by 

 a great mortality. It is also found to rain but very seldom in 

 that country ; however, the want of showers is richly compen- 

 sated by the copiousness of their dews, which greatly tend to 

 promote vegetation. 



In Persia, the winter begins in November, and continues till 

 March. The cold at that time is intense enough to congeal 

 the water ; and snow falls in abundance upon their mountains. 



appears : «'hen, in tlie evening- of the 18th of May, I felt myself entirely 

 overcome by a suit'ofating' lieat ; it seemed as if the fluctuation of the air was 

 Biiddenly suspended. I was struck on my arrival with my companions at the 

 bank of the Nile, with a new appearance of Nature all around me ; this was 

 a kind of light and colours which I liad not before seen. 'J'he sun, without 

 being concealed, had lost its rays ; it had even less lustre to the eye than the 

 tiioon, and gave a pale light without shade ; the waters of the Nile no longer 

 reflected its rays, but appeared in agitation ; every thing had changed its 

 usual aspect ; it was now the flat shore that seemed luminous, and the air 

 dull and opaque; the yellow horizon showed the trees on its surface of » 

 dirty blue ; flocks of birds were flying off before the cloud : and frighted ani- 

 mals ran loose in the country, followed by the inhabitants, who vainly 

 attempted to collect them together again. We could now easily conceive the 

 dreadful situation of those who are surprised with such a phenomenon of 

 nature, when crossing the exposed and naked deserts ; where, as it stands 

 upon record, many thousands have been overwhelmed and lost in the shoals 

 of sand raised by the Kamsin winds. The next day an astonishing mass of 

 dust, attended with similar appearances, travelled along the desert of Libya : 

 it followed the chain of the mountains, and when we flattered ourselves that 

 we were entirely rid of this pestilence, the west wind brought it back, and 

 once more overwhelmed us with this scorching torrent ; the light of the sun 

 could pierce with difficulty through this dense vapour ; all the elemeiUs 

 appeared to be in disorder ; rain was mixed with whirlwinds of fire, wind, 

 add dust, and, in this time of confusion, the trees, and all the other produc- 

 tions of nature, seemed to be again plunged in the horrors of chaos. If the 

 desert of Liyba had sent ns these clouds of dust, those on the east, on the 

 contrary, had been inundated with water; for the merchants who came from 

 .he borders of the Red Sea, told us, that in the valleys, they had the water up 

 to the middle of their legs. When this destructive scourge sets in from the 

 desert, the inundation of sand often overwhelms the country, changes its 

 fertility to barrenness, drives the labourer from his house, whose walls it 

 covers up, and leaves no other mark of vegetable life but the tops of a few 

 palm-trees, which adds still more to the dreary aspect of destruction. Thus 

 the desert is constantly encroaching on the fertile land ; and, were the waters 

 of the Nile to discontinue its inundations, the whole vale of Egypt would 

 eventually become a desert or bed of sand." 



