Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/591

Rh faced to the eastward, and seemed to be coming directly upon us; but, though they were little nearer us than two miles, a considerable quantity of sand fell round us. I began now to be somewhat reconciled to this phenomenon, seeing it had hitherto done us no harm. The great magnificence it exhibited in its appearance, seemed, in some measure, to indemnify us for the panic it had first occasioned: But it was otherwise with the simoom; we all of us were firmly persuaded that another passage of the purple meteor over us would be attended with our deaths.

half past four we alighted in a vast plain, bounded on all sides by low sandy hills, which seemed to have been transported hither lately. These hillocks were from seven to thirteen feet high, drawn into perfect cones, with very sharp points and well-proportioned bases. The sand was of an inconceivable fineness, having been the sport of hot winds for thousands of years. There could be no doubt that the day before, when it was calm, and we suffered so much by the simoom between El Mout and Chiggre, the wind had been raising pillars of sand in this place, called Umdoom; marks of the whirling motion of the pillars were distinctly seen in every heap, so that here again, while we were repining at the simoom, Providence was busied keeping us out of the way of another scene, where, if we had advanced a day, we had all of us been involved in inevitable destruction.

the 18th we left Umdoom at seven in the morning, our direction N. a little inclined to W.; at nine o'clock we passed through a sandy plain, without trees or verdure. About 300 yards out of our way, to the left, among