...covered with stone, shingle, and salt, the season wears on, and the heat grows greater, the ground, bal and blistered by the sun, shines over large tracts...lands is water found, and only near water is there brushwood, grass, or any sign of growth. Except a chance bird or herd of wild asses, a stray antelope,...

...flat surface, covered with stone, shingle, and salt. As the summer wears on, and the heat increases, the ground, baked and blistered by the sun, shines...over large tracts of salt with dazzling whiteness, the distance dimmed and distorted by an increasing mirage. On some raised plots of rocky land, water...