252 \VIDE AND INHOSPITABLE DESERTS. ^ 
and of the size of the fist ; they are almost all of r 
dimension, and their surface is carious like 
mortar ; I look upon this to be a true volcanic pro ^ j iff 
This bed is extended with such perfect regularity. 
whole desert is covered with it ; a circumstanc® 
makes pacing over it very fatiguing to the travell®f’^^^itlf' 
Not any animal is to be seen in this desert. 
quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, nor insects, nor anyp^^”|,]i *'* 
ever 5 and the traveller who is obliged to pass tht^Hl p*l| 
is surrounded by the silence of death. It was no*- jijif 
in the evening that we began to distinguish 
plants, burnt with the sun, and a tree of a thorny 
without blossom or fruit.” 
sands of the desert. 
Kow o’er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe. 
And the live desert pants, and heaves heneath ; 
'J’inKeil by the crimson snn, vast columns rise 
Of eddyinj; sands, and war amid the skies, 
In red arcades the billowy plain surround, 
And stalkins; liirrets dance upon the ground. 
paR 
, slill 
In the pathless desert, high mounds of sand. 
witli every change of wind, surround the traveUet n* 
side, and conceal from his view all odier objeclS’ c> 
the wind is of a surprising rapidity, and the U 
tremely fine, that it forms on the ground waves 
semble those of the sea. These waves rise up 
in a very few hours a hill of from twenty to j;;’, ^ s!’''], 
high is transported from one place to another. ^ j, f' , 
ing of these hills, however, does not take place 
den, as is generally believed, and^ is not by any ^’*'’01) !||( 
pable of surprising and burying* a caravan . .m 
■ ■ 
inarch. ’ The mode in wdfich the transposition ' 
takes place is not difficult of explanation. 
sweeping the 
sand from the surface" continually. 
with an astonishing rapidity, the ground lowers 
mciit ; but ll’.e quantity of sand in the air ip®‘'v ili^ 
quickly by successive waves, cannot support^ i'® j[,er^ 
but hills in heaps, and forms a new hill, leavinS^j- IP* 
it before occupied level, and with the appearan®® 
b^n swept. 
