Whirlwinds, raising huge pillars of smoke from burning grass and weeds, are common in the forenoon.

We were nearly caught in an immense one.

It crossed about twenty yards in front of us, the wind apparently rushing into it from all points of the compass.

Whirling round and round in great eddies, it swept up hundreds of feet into the air a continuous dense dark cloud of the black pulverized soil, mixed with dried grass, off the plain.

Herds of the new antelopes, lechwe, and poku, with the kokong, or gnus, and zebras stood gazing at us as we passed.