The smell of sulphur hangs heavily in the hot air. Millions of dead fish are cast up on the beaches. Columns of yellow smoke, and even flames, have been known to rise out of the sea during these underwater disturbances. Nature plays weird tricks, too, along the shore. Here and there are wide rivers, with steep banks, that wind from far inland through the sand dunes down to the sea, though few people have ever seen water in them.
Years sometimes pass without rain falling.
Then, almost without waring, the rain comes down in torrents, the rivers fill, and the water rushes headlong down to the sea, tearing away drifts and banks and flooding the countryside. Almost as suddenly as it came, the water disappears. If you knew where to dig you might find the river then, carrying on far below its bed. Here and there it comes to the surface to run in its normal channel for a short distance, then to dive underground again. The Kuiseb River runs like this right under the settlement of Walvis Bay.