"The same appearance of moving pillars of sand presented themselves to us this day in form and disposition like those we had seen at Waadi Halboub, only they seemed to be more in number and less in size. They came several times in a direction close upon us, that is, I believe, within less than two miles. They began immediately after sun rise like a thick wood and almost darkened the sun. His rays shining through them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became desperate, the Greeks shrieked out and said it was the day of judgment; Ismael pronounced it to be hell; and the Turcorories, that the world was on fire." Bruce's Travels, Vol. IV. p. 553,-555. From this account it would appear, that the eddies of wind were owing to the long range of broken rocks, which bounded one side of the sandy desert, and bent the currents of air, which struck against their sides; and were thus like the eddies in a stream of water, which falls against oblique obstacles. This explanation is probably the true one, as these whirl-winds were not attended with rain or lightening like the tornadoes of the West-Indies.] IX. "GNOMES! whose fine forms, impassive as the air, 500 Shrink with soft sympathy for human care; Who glide unseen, on printless slippers borne, Beneath the waving grass, and nodding corn; Or lay your tiny limbs, when noon-tide warms, Where shadowy cowslips stretch their golden arms,-- 505 So mark'd on orreries in lucid signs, Star'd with bright points the mimic zodiac shines; Borne on fine wires amid the pictured skies With ivory orbs the planets set and rise; Round the dwarf earth the pearly moon is roll'd, 510 And the sun twinkling whirls his rays of gold.-- Call your bright myriads, march your mailed hosts, With spears and helmets glittering round the coasts; Thick as the hairs, which rear the Lion's mane, Or fringe the Boar, that bays the hunter-train; 515 Watch, where proud Surges break their treacherous mounds, And sweep resistless o'er the cultured grounds; Such as erewhile, impell'd o'er Belgia's plain, Roll'd her rich ruins to the insatiate main; With piles and piers the ruffian waves engage, 520 And bid indignant Ocean stay his rage. [_So mark'd on orreries_. l. 505. The first orrery was constructed by a Mr. Rowley, a mathematician born at Lichfield; and so named from his patron the Earl of Orrery. Johnson's Dictionary.]