Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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From One Of These Land-Marks They Waded
Through Sand Formed Into Hills From Twenty To Sixty Feet In Height,
With Nearly Perpendicular Sides, The Camels Blundering And Falling
With Their Heavy Loads.
The greatest care is taken by the drivers in
descending these banks; the Arabs hang with all their weight on the
animal's tail, by which means they steady him in his descent.
Without
this precaution the camel generally falls forward, and of course all
he carries goes over his head.
In the evening they bivouacked under a head called Zow, (the
difficult,) where they found several wells. On the following day, the
sand-hills were less than on the preceding one. But the animals still
sank so deep that it was a tedious day, for all the four camels of
Boo Khaloom gave in; two were killed by the Arabs, and two were left
to the chance of coming up before the following morning. Tremendously
dreary are these marches, as far as the eye can reach, billows of
sand bound the prospect. On seeing the solitary foot passenger of the
kafila, with his water flask in his hand, and the bag of zumeeta on
his head, sink at a distance beneath the slope of one of these, as he
plods his way along, hoping to gain a few paces in his long day's
work, by not following the track of the camels, one trembles for his
safety; the obstacle passed which concealed him from the view, the
eye is strained towards the spot, in order to be assured that he has
not been hurried quickly in the treacherous overwhelming sand.
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