The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-03-10
AMID DRIFTING SANDS.
STRANGE SCENES AMONG THE SHIFT.
ING DUNES CT NEBRASKA.

An Ocean Turned to sand While Tosset
by IA Storm-Siisnce and u Labyrinth o
Shadows--A Well Dug by the Wind
| A Nagrant Country.
The sand hills" in Nebraska are peculiar
Drltted east, west, north, south, everywhere
by each wind that blows; whirlcd up into @
concal peak by the wind of today, only TO he
blown out into "A long, low drift by that OF
tomorrow, tossed about hither and thither
like snow by every passing breeze these sand
dunes have strange, uncertain existence,
almost as tickle and capricious as the wind
itself. They are shifting, moving desert
an ever hillowy ocean on which ono may
walk, mounting the waves, and, looking of
across the restless surface, see sand and sky,
nothing more. They are unique; an ocean,
while tossed by storm, turned 10 sand, and
still like the ocean, the waves rising and fall
| ing only slower. Fitful, unquet, restless, n
yagrant country,
The sand hills are dcsolatc drcary, silent.
On calm day the silence is oppressive |
remember riding up on the top of Que of these
| drifts of sand one afternoon whom the sun
was sinking well dLwn toward the west, and
| it seemed IA ii Their wasnothing around me
but shadows every cone throwing Il dark
| shadow half way up the grayish yellow side
! of the next. had left the wagon an hour
before, as we were going along the trail four
or five miles to the south, and ridden Off
among the hills on the pony after some an
tcopeS of which we had caught sight. IL was
Il still, calm October day-not breath of
! wind, not n cloud in sight. had wandered
over and among the hills for some time, when
| stopped Ia r,St ON the top Of ono rather
higher ,hun the others. 1t seemed as if
could see thousands of the little round, conIcal
hills each forty or fifty feet high perhaps
| each like all the others each casting dark,
srini-clrcular shadow. As the eye reached
further away the hills seemed 10 become lost
and gradually melt into one another but the
shadows remained, making a landscape Of
shadows-half shadows, half sunlight. The
shadows lay thick and regular over the sandy
waste, as IT some giant had gone over the
whole country with huge paint brush, and
touched the landscape regularly with dark
Dlutchcs Their edges almost met, with only
a trucery ot sunlight dividing them, In time
the view would have grown monotonous, but
then it was strange, unique, bewildcring. IL
was silence and dcsolaton lying at ones feet
with the soft afternoon sun-a little rcdder
than usual, little like Indian summer
flooding it with hazy light, and gradually
sinking lower and lower, while the shadows
rose higher and higher
Some little distance away | could see a
couple of the antelopes 1 had started after
on top of one of the hills, gazing toward INC
wit d IN, Mt ha lint ! Thought
was going to get them Sitting half way
mp the side Of almost the next hill was Il lean
and hungry coyote. AT the foot OF the one
whore ! stood lay scattered the bones OF two
ol. three buifaloeS, half buried IN the sand,
with their white, spectral looking skulls and
black horns. The rest was sand sand and
shadows and silence.
Nv pony stood with her feet buried in the
sand watching the wolf Nothing stirred.
1t seemed as if | could feel the silence It
pressed down all around. 1t wascvcrywhere.
| wondered how far into the edges of this
desert the noises of tie world without pene-
trated | spoke. and it sounded like a voice
from behind the next sand dune from some
one unseen. 1t was strange, this deep silence;
and as the shadows crept gradually mp the
hills the whole scene became weird. 1t
seemed as il was in a labyrinth of shadows
shut in among the shadows by slence--a and
gradually began to doubt whether knew
the directions, or whether there was such
thing as direction or distance. Only shadows,
and more shadows, and Dead heavy, al
most painful silence, | wondered il there
was ever any sound here, or if--bnt there
was--the silence was broken by flock of
sandhill cranes, flying over so far above that
they looked but little more than specks, but
the tapping OF their wings came clear and
distinct. Then little burrowing owl flew
out of the next shadow toward the sun. and
tapped its way slowly around another hill,
and the coyote went in what appeared TO me
would be rather iruitless pursuit, and the
antelopes bounded away, looking no bigger
than rabbits as they disappeared among the
hills and shadows.
There was no limit to the view--hills and
shadows, shadows and hills, as far as the eye
could reach-and far beyond. II was fifty
miles to the east before the fertile country
was encountered; almost as far 10 the west.
The sand hills stretched away TO miles to
the south; don't know how far 10 the north
it was not above two miles to the line be-
tween Nebraska and Dakota, aud beyond
that was the great Sioux Indian reservation,
reaching away to the north almost iUD miles.
II made little difference how fat the sand eN
tended this was equally wild and uu'nhabited
whether it was n desert or fertile plain.
Ten miles to the south was IN. Niobrara
rver---a small stream rolling along through
the sand between low bluffs, aud constantly
growing smaller instead Of larger it's way
to the Missouri Well up toward its head,
more than 100 miles to the west, it seems as
large as at its mouth. Between beng swal-
lowed up by the sands and evaporatel by the
hot sun and Scorching winds, unfortunate
Niobrara struggles half Its course.
The only variation to the scene of hill and
shadow was far TO the northwest-So far that
it was scarcely noticed at first. Here in one
place the hills grew lower till gradually the
shadows melted together and a narrow hut
well defined valley could tie traced, at the
bottom of which, cleaning IN the sun, lay a
little silver lake glimmerlng mirror
among the sand dunes. Ii was where the
wind, during some dry season, had whirled
the sand away and >cooped down lower than
usual-bel0w the water line-and afterward
the water had run in and formed the little