Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-08
GRAND AND TERRIBLE.
Graphic Description of Sand-Spout in an
African Desert.

Under the fairest skies the desert is
an awesome solitude, but when a storm
comes it is terrible and appalling. l
shall never forget a scene / witnessed
some forty miles beyond the great
pyramids. says writer in the New
York Hail and Express. l had gained
an isolated hillock. some 200 feet above
the level of the surrounding desert.
Away TO the east, about two miles dis
tant, | deserted six or seven lofty pill
lars of sand moving swiftly over the
undulating plain. The center one of
these was vertical, and those surround
ing it, at a distance of 200 or 500 yards,
leaned slightly toward it. The sand
at the base of the column was dashed
by the furious whirlwind into a surg
ing sea. Desert trees of the hardest
wood were torn up with their roots
and hurled hundreds of yards away
and high up into the air; even the
grass that grew in the path of that
terrible storm was shorn clean away
from its roots. The SUBMITS of those
columns of sand at length Joined. and
then burst forth from their united tops
a yellow gigantic cloud of sand of
such magnitude and density as to
darken, as in a total eclipse, the face
of the bright afternoon sun. The
sand-spout, called by the natives sob
ahah, shortly after subsidized. but the
cloud of sand and grass which had
been raised high in the heavens con-
tinued to darken the setting sun for
more than an hour. The smaller col
umn behind travelled swiftly, increas-
ing in size, until it reached the site
of the breakup of the other, and then
added its mite to the universal destruc-
ton.
With my sextant, as I stood in Sc
curity, measured the height of the
center column of sand; it was nearly
1000 feet. The other columns were
rising so rapidly that they soon reach
ed a greater height than that of the
center column. When the junction of
them all took place the sudden erup-
ton of sand, leaves, and grass reached
a total height of over 4, 900 feet. These
''zobahahs" are not very frequent,
but when they occur they carry wide
spread devastation along with them,
and woe betide the traveller and the
tent that happen to stand in their way.
Not more than ten yards from the col
umn the air is perfectly calm, but
within the small circumscribing circle
there RACES such tempest as will
carry away anything, however grimly
fixed in the ground, into the regions of
the upper air as easily as an ordinary
gust of wind will blow piece of paper.
The camel, this wonderful ship of the
desert, always knows a few hours be-
fore whether one of these approaching
''zobahahs'' is likely to come upon
him and his natural instinct will guide
him to a place of safety, where he lies
down and only breathes the cool reac-
tive current which closely follows the
burning, almost suffocating, hot air
which accompanies the ''zobahahs. "
The usual movement of these sand
spouts is in the arc of wide circle
and the direction of the center of the
circle is almost invariably from north
to south.
When these awful turmoils are over
and the disturbing elements have re-
sumed their normal state the burning
sand becomes saturated with a heavy
dew, the sun is less angry, and the At
rican desert more amenable to life in
both man and beast