'Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde; accompanied by a geographical and historical account of those countries, with a map.' [‎132] (174/476)

132 desert.
aperture was left at one corner to admit a small bucket or cop
per vessel for drawing the water, which I was both surprized and
disappointed, considering the deepness of the well, to find so brackish
as to be barely palatable.
We quitted this well just as the sun rose, and proceeded the greater
part of the way on foot, twenty-seven miles farther, over a desert
of red sand, the particles of which were so light, that when taken in
the hand they were scarcely more than palpable : the whole is thrown
by winds into an irregular mass of waves principally running east and
west, and varying in height from ten to twenty feet; most of these
rise perpendicularly on the opposite side to that from which the pre
vailing wind blows (north-west), and might readily be fancied, at a
distance, to resemble a new brick wall. The side facing the wind
slopes off with a gradual declivity to the base (or near it) of the next
windward wave. It again aoccnds in a straight line, in the same
extraordinary manner as above described, so as to form a hollow or
path between them. I kept as much in these paths as the direction
I had to travel in would admit of, but had nevertheless exceeding
difficulty and fatigue in urging the camels over the waves when it
was requisite to do so, and more particularly where we had to clamber
up the leeward or perpendicular face of them, in which attempt we
were many times defeated, and reduced to go round until an easier
place or turn in the wave offered. On the oblique or shelving side
the camels got up pretty well, as their broad feet saved them from
sinking deeper than we did ourselves, and the instant they found the
top of the wave giving way from their weight, they most expertly
dropt on their knees, and in that posture gently slid down with the
sand, which was luckily so unconnected, that the leading camel
usually caused a sufficient breach for the others to follow on foot.
All symptoms of vegetation had ceased for the latter ten miles of my
journey this day, except a few stunted bushes of the Taghuz * and a
* Vide Narrative of the 27th, Note.