'Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde; accompanied by a geographical and historical account of those countries, with a map.' [‎135] (177/476)

11
DESERT.
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lage aptly called Regan whose inhabitants had gone to Gurmsyl
(which district lies north-north-west of this place) owing to the
scarcity. Here we halted on the western brink, and with much
digging and difficulty procured two Mushks, or skins, of water. I
imagine the direct course from the well we left yesterday morning to
Regan, would have been about west; but our guide, fearing to lose
himself, kept to the southward, where he could at intervals descry
the mountains.
<2(1 April. I set out from Regan just as the day began to dawn,
and having made a westerly march of twenty-one miles, halted at
three in the afternoon. 1 he desert was not near so sandy, and in
many places was composed of a hard black gravel without a trace of
verdure, or even a bush to be seen. In the latter part of my route I
could distinctly trace with my eye, a chain of lofty mountains stretch
ing all round in front from south-west to north-west; and when we
alighted off the camels, my guide shewed me the break in them
through which we were to gain egress from this inhospitable waste.
I experienced this forenoon a violent tornado or gust of wind,
accompanied by a torrent of rain which continued for half an hour,
and was absorbed by the earth as it fell. It came on most unex
pectedly, and had the guide not apprized mo of its strength, we
should probably have fared worse than we did, for it would have been
an act of temerity to have tried to sit on the camels during its im
petuous fury. Refore it began, the sky was clear, save a few small
clouds in the north-west quarter, and the only antecedent warning it
afforded, was the oppressive sultriness of the air and a vast number of
whirlwinds springing up on all sides f ; the moment the Rrahooe saw
* Sands. I have considered the Boodoor river, and its probable source, fully, in the
second part of this work.
f These whirlwinds would perhaps be more correctly called by some other name, but
as the wind issued from them I venture to adopt the term. They are vast columns of
sand, which begin by a trifling agitation with a revolving motion on the surface of the
desert, and gradually ascend and expand, until the tops of them are lost to the view, in
which manner they move about with every breath of wind like a pillar of sand. I have