FORCED MARCHES THROUGH THE DESERT 
157 
swarm of locusts whilst going through a mountain-pass in 
the desert. The air was white with them. In the sun 
they looked like falling snow. Every bush was thick with 
them, and as we walked along they flew up in millions. I 
managed with a stick to knock over enough for the store - 
box and frying-pan. I had now partaken, like John the 
Baptist, of ‘ locusts and wild honey ’ in the desert. The 
locusts literally hid the sun from view, and it took us three 
hours to march past the cloud. 
The heat striking upon the barren rock was intense the 
whole day, and it was a sight to see my twenty -three 
followers bathing and drinking in a hollow in the rock full 
of water, all at the same time. 
The third day was very trying to the men and animals, 
owing to the great heat. I got a man to walk by the side 
of the camel which carried the lion cubs, and dash water 
upon them from time to time. When we halted for the 
mid-day rest the cubs lay and gasped for breath ; I thought 
they could not live. They refused to move a muscle, except 
their panting tongues. I determined to march through 
the whole of the next night, and try to reach the coast 
town before the sun became strong. 
Loading up at 5 p.m., we accordingly marched into the 
darkness. One of my camels soon fell down exhausted, and 
I was obliged to shoot it and march on. Two and a half 
miles an hour was the pace, and as the pony carried a fever- 
stricken man, I was obliged to tramp it on foot. Oh, the 
heat ! It almost suffocated me. The wind fell. It became 
almost unbearable owing to the dust and sand in one’s 
mouth, nose, and eyes. 
The sun at length rose, to find us still tramping over the 
hot rock and sand, and still a long day’s march from the 
coast town. About ten o’clock the wind rose again with 
terrific violence, and at noon, when we halted for the mid- 
day rest, it w^as so strong that my tent could not be 
pitched, and I was obliged to sit under the very inadequate 
shade afforded by a single tree and barricade of store 
