2-979-096 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Simoom in the Desert, 1857. '...the wary and accustomed eye of the old greybearded camel-driver recognises in the murky banks quickly rising on the hot horizon the near approach of one of those dreadful sand-storms...The camels, with instinctive perception, quicken their pace to a fast trot; while the old man, putting his hand up to his eyes to shade them from the intense mid-day glare, runs on in front in the hope of yet meeting shelter before the fury of the simoom bursts over their heads and smothers them with intense clouds of dust...even the fair lady, in her great anxiety to reach a haven, is glad to furl her parasol...The travellers quicken their pace; they mount over the mountains' sides and carefully descend the rather abrupt descent that conducts them to a valley...The dusky clouds rising high above the hills proclaim the simoom to be raging fiercely on the other side...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.