582 TRAVELS"TO DISCOVER 
weigh but a very few pounds 3:no vermin’ ‘had touched 4t} 
as in this whole defert there is neither.worm bart nor “ 
thing. that has. he breath‘of life. - 
On the 2rft, atefix in: the morning, hhaeteb filled the gir- 
‘bas with water, we fet out from Naibey, our’ dire@tion due 
north, and, as we thought, in a-courfe almoft firaight upon 
Syene. ‘The firft hour of our journey was through fharp-' 
pointed rocks, which it was very eaty to forefee would very 
foon finifh our camels. About eight:we had-a view of the 
defert to the weftward:as before, and faw' the fands had al- 
ready begun to rife in immenfe'twitted pillars, which dark- 
ened the heavens. The-rifingof thefe in the morning fo ear- 
ly, we began now to obferve, was a fure fign of a hot day, 
avith a brifk wind at north; and that:heat, and the early 
rifing of the fands, was as.furea fign of its falling calm about 
mid-day, and its being followed ‘by two hours:of the poifon- 
ous wind. That laft- confideration was what-made the great- 
eft impreffion, for we had felt its effects ; it had filled us 
with fear, and abforbed the laft remnant of our ftrength; 
whereas the fand, though a deftruction to .us-if it had in- 
volved us in its compafs, had as yet done us no other harm 
‘than terrifying us:the firft. days we had {een it. 
Ir was this day more magnificent than any we had as 
yet feen. The fun fhining through the pillars, which were - 
thicker, and contained more fand apparently than any of 
the preceding days, feemed to give thofe neareft tis an ‘ap- 
pearance as if {potted with flars of gold... Ido not’ think 
at any time they feemed to’ be nearer than two miles. The 
mot remarkable circumftanee was, that the fand feemed 
+o keep in that vaft circular fpace furrounded by the Nile 
2 ie on. 
