TCD MS 10516 folio 83 recto
[12th October 1916] ry aloft is disseminated through a depth of atmosphere thousands of feet in thickness that conceals the fierce rays of the sun for three hours before the setting of its globe.
Dusts of all kinds spread abroad through the sky burnish the sun with a metallic sheen. The sand from the desert dims it to a ghostly silver white; the dust from a volcanic crater colours it with fleeting tints of green or red or tarnished copper or shining brass. I recollect a delightfully still and peaceful evening drifting idly in the Euphrates river. Every boat, with its white sheet of limp and empty sail was reflected in the mirrored stream as a vision of graceful beauty. Away to the west the smoke of burning kilns ascended into the sky, an enormous column,