The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-08-10
VEGETABLE DUST.
The Sea Dust OF the Northeru Seas shown
to BE Particles of Tropical Plant Life.

The Sea Dust OF the Northern Seas shows
to Be Particles of 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 cosmie nor volcanic. though ID
too. has travelled great distances.
Vessels, hundreds of miles from land.
have been at times evelOped for days in
fog consisting of brick-red or CHINA
mOn-colored dust, which covered the
sails and rigging with thick coat, and
rendered the air so hay that no vessel
which was more than quarter Of
mile of could be distinguished even at
midday. OF st. Jago, during certain
months of the year, very fine dust is
almost constantly falling, which,
saws Mr.. Darwin. rOughess
and slightly Injuries astro-
nomieal instruments, hurts the eyes,
dirties everything on board, and ss
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
mart o0,,S;St;pnr Of fsDa ynudor I'm tho
succeeding days, as the vessel proceed
ed on her way, the dust became so fine
that il 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, il
was ut first naturally concluded that the
dust was all African too. The mineral
examination il was found that the great
part u the dust was organic. and con-
sisted mainly of those minute. flint
cased forms of plsnt-life knoVn IS di-
atoms. which exist in almost all water
salt. fresh. or brackish. Further exami-
naIion also revealed the singular fact
that. though the dust came directly
from Africa, of all the MANY different
organic forms, none were peculiar to AZ
RIGA, and all but two belonged TO
fresh-water families; and it has since
been proved that all the organic portion
of the dust, whether il fell st 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 One-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 half an
inch long. and the twelfth part of an
inch wide. clearly belonging to some
tropical tree, hae been carried more
than twelve hundred miles from any
coast where &c could have grown, We
wonder less ST the long journeys taken
by these maRute One-celled plants, A.
900. O00.0 of which occupy only one
cubic inch of space, and weigh but
two hundred and twenty grains.
'.The Worlds LHm6er ROOM, By Selma
Co.,