SOIL AND CLIMATE. 7 and at a time, moreover, when the traveller is longing after water. We vish for wings, to be able to reach the element of which we have been so long deprived as quickly as possible. We delight in the idea of invigorating the exhausted and enervated body by a bath, and the eye is continually bent upon this pleasing object. But what is our disappointment,—how are the spirits depressed, —when, notwithstanding these ardent wishes, on our apjiroach, the lakes and rivers, which we had discerned at the distance, are resolved, in the literal sense of the word, into thin air ; and when we find, in lieu of water, the sand as hot and drj as in the place we had just left ! \len the traveller has frequently observed this phenomenon, and accustomed himself to it, he will be pleased with the image which diverts his eye, and will look upon it as a variation in the scene. These aerial phenomena are called in the countrj', Bahr-el-Ghazal, or Gazelle Rivers, probably because, like these animals, they disappear as soon as seen.

The rains begin in the month of June, and terminate with the month of October. Those who have not spent this season in a tropical countr}% can form no idea of the showers which then drench the earth.

The storms generally arise in the east or in the south. A small black cloud is, at first, perceived on the horizon, which increases as it approaches, spreads in a few minutes, with incredible velocity, over the whole region, and then descends. A fear-