351 WIPE and IMItOEPlTABLE PK.S'.'.V.TS. _ 
wave, again ascending in a straight line, in i hp I">‘' 
ordinary manner as above described, so as to form ^ 
or path between them. Our traveller kept as_^' 
these paths as the direction he had to take 
but it was not without great difliculty and fatigi’t* 
camels were urged over the waves, when it ■''■■‘'t* 
to do so, and more particularly when they had 
up the lee-ward or perpendicular face of them, "’jjjjqiit. 
ing which they were often defeated. On the ° j* 
shelving side they ascended pretty well, their 
saving them from sinking deeper than did th® 
themselves ; and the instant they found the r 
wave giving way from tlieir weight, they “j, 
dropped on their knees, and in that posture 
down with the sand, wliich was luckily so ru’e 
that the leading camel usually caused a sufficient 
the others to fallow on foot. 'I'he night was sP . |ji>’ 
shelter of one of these sand waves, f'-,. «„ri-onndii3 
the surround . 
sphere being uncommonly hot and close. . “fi 
On the following day, in crossing a desert or it'j 
description, the like impediments occurred ; 
were trifling compared with the distress suftered; ^j. 
by our traveller and his people, but also by the 
the floating particles of sand — a phenomenon f”'’ jjfjt 
confesses himself at a loss to account. When hs 
served it, in the morning, the desert appeared 
the distance of half a mile or less, an elevated 
face from six to twelve inches higher than the 
the sand waves. This vapour appeared to recede 
vanced, and once or twice completely encircled^ 
limiting the horizon to a very confined space, •'’■d 
ing a most gloomy and unnatural sensation to grc^l'e,'' 
the beholders, who were at the same moment ii'dP '‘y 
covered with innumerable atoms of small S‘'d 
getting into the eyes, mouth and nostrils, cau-o 
irritation, attended by an extreme thirst, which ,j« 
in no small degree by the intense heat of 
annoyance is supposed by the natives to orig**' 
solar beams causing the dust of tlie desert, 
^ ....^ ir**^*' 
pharicaily call it, to rise and float through the 
which appears to be in a great measure correct; ^ j))i; 
ocean being only visible dui'ing the iiottest pat* 
