558 
THROUGH ASIA 
it was all pretence. Nevertheless it was my duty to set 
an example to the rest, and keep up the other men’s 
courage, so I gave him half of my allotted portion to 
drink. After that we lost sight of him ; nor did he show 
himself ag'ain until the following morning. 
We vainly scanned the horizon for “land.” There was 
not a sign of a living creature to be seen. The desert 
ocean extended before us and around us to an infinite 
distance. The country decreased a little in elevation ; but 
the relative dryness of the atmosphere remained unaltered. 
The ridges now stretched from north to south ; their steep 
sides being again turned towards the west, which of 
course greatly added to the difficulties of our advance. 
Looking eastwards from the top of a high crest, we had 
before us an unending succession of steep banks of sand, 
which, by an optical illusion, looked like a series of easy 
steps. Westwards the eye glided across the long' sloping 
windward faces of the dunes, so that towards that quarter 
the surface appeared almost level. The effect of this 
was to reduce us to despair. We fancied the dunes 
were growing higher and higher, and consequently the 
road more and more difficult with every step we took. 
Here, too, the sheltered sides of the dunes frequently 
showed a sprinkling of minute fragments of micaceous 
schist of a steel-grey colour. 
This day our hopes were spurred by the discovery of 
the skeleton of a vole (gen. Ai'vicola), as well as of a 
hoary, withered poplar. And yet it was building upon 
an extremely slender foundation ; for the vole’s skeleton 
may have been carried to the spot where we found it 
by a bird, and the poplar was without a root. If only 
it had been rooted in the ground ! That alone, for as 
little a thing as it was, would have kindled our hopes 
anew. 
We travelled through that awful sand the whole day ; 
consequently our pace was painfully slow. 1 he camels’ 
bells echoed at longer intervals apart ; for the poor 
creatui'es were half dead with fatigue. All the sam.e they 
still marched on with the same calm dignity and majestic 
