Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-01-14
"a s:=ss 3 sazlME! Donelan. on the Corner.

Ne - Dust 81 IL NoEthern
- Ds Partissss 81 Tropical Plant Life.
But the dust which constitutes the
chief part of the red fog of the Atlantic,
the sea dust of the Northern seas, and
the sirocco-dust of South Europe, is
neither cosmic nor volcanic, though it.
too, has travelled great distances.
Vessels, hundreds of miles from land,
have been at times eveloped for days in
a fog consisting of br;ck-red or cinna-
mon -colored dust, which covered the
sails and rigging with thick coat, and
rendered the air so hazy that no vessel
which was more than quarter of a
mile off could be distinguished even at
midday. OF ST. Jago, during certain
months of the year, q very fine dust is
almost constantly falling, which,
says Mr.. Darwin. roughens
and slightly Injuries astro-
nomical instruments, hurts the eyes,
dirties everything on board, and at
times falls so thickly that vessels have
been known to run ashore owing to the
obscurity, and are recommended to
avoid the passage between Cape Verd
and the Archipelago. Considerable
quantities continued to fall upon the
Beagle when she was between three and
four hundred miles from shore, some
of the variously colored transparent par
ticles being a thousandth part of an
inch square, few larger, and the greater
part consisting of fine powder. On the
succeeding days. as the vessel proceed
ed on her way, the dust became so fine
that it could be collected only on damp
sponge; but it has been known to fall
on vessels one thousand and even one
thousand six hundred miles from any
land.
From the direction of the wind and
the fact that the dust falls during those
months when the harmattan raises
clouds of it high in the air, and blows
from the northwest shores of Africa, it
was at first naturally concluded that the
dust was all African too. The mineral
part of it, no doubt, may be so; but on
examination it was found that the great
part of the dust was organic, and con-
sisted mainly of those minute. flint
cased forms of plant-life known as di-
atoms, which exist in almost all water
salt, fresh, or brackish. Further exami-
nation also revealed the singular fact
that. though the dust came directly
from Africa, Of al the many different
organic forms. none were peculiar to A.
RIGA, and all but two belonged to
fresh-water families; and it has since
been proved that al the organic portion
of the dust, whether it fell as Cape
Verd. Malta. Genoa, Lyons or in the
TyrOl, has come from the south side OF
the equator, and has been transported
from the banks of the OrinOco and
Amazon. When. however, We find that
particle of mineral matter Ons-thOu-
sandth part Of an inch square can be
carried three or four hundred miles, and
that narrow strip of vegetable sub
stance something more than haf an
inch long, and the twelfth part of an
inch wide, clearly belonging to some
tropical tree, has been carried more
than twelve hundred miles from any
coast where it could have grown, we
wonder less at the long journeys taken
by these minute one-celled plants, A.
OOO. OOO,O 900 of which occupy only one
cubic inch of space, and weigh but
two hundred and twenty grains.
1.-The World's Lumber Room" By Selma
Cane