SAND-STORMS. 151 



anxious to get forward, knowing that he would 

 be able to discover by the track of the waggon 

 what road we had taken, we continued our jour- 

 ney across this sandy plain towards Coles-Berg 

 the lofty peak of which, towering above the sur- 

 rounding hills, afforded a land-mark to direct our 

 course. 



The weather had been oppressively sultry, a 

 deathlike stillness pervading the air throughout 

 the morning ; a dry, scorching wind now prevailed, 

 which increased with terrific violence ; vast columns 

 of red sand were to be seen rising from the plain 

 in all directions, while the sunbeams, darting 

 through the dense and hazy atmosphere, cast a 

 wild and extraordinary glare on the tempestuous 

 scene. 



Mr. Barrow, speaking of these sand-storms, re- 

 marks, " they are sometimes attended with tornados 

 that are really dreadful. Waggons are overturned, 

 men and horses thrown down, and the shrubs torn 

 out of the ground ; the dust and sand are whirled 

 into the air in columns of several hundred feet in 

 height, which at a distance look like water-spouts 

 seen sometimes at sea, and with those they are 

 equally, if possible, avoided ; all that falls in their 

 way being snatched up in their vortex. Some- 

 times dust and small pebbles are hurled into the 

 air with the noise and violence of a sky-rocket : 

 rain and thunder generally succeed these heated 



