Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-16
AMID DRIFTING SANDS.
STRANGE SCENES AMONG THE SHIFT
ING DUNES OF NEBRASKA.

| An Ocean Turned to Sand While Toss ed
by Storm-Silence aud Labyrinth OF
shadows-A Well Dug by the Wind.
A vagrant Country.
The s'sand hills in Nebraska are peculiar.
Drifted east, west north, south, everywhere,
by each wind that blows; whirled up into a
conical peak by the wind of today, only to be
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,
All ever billowy ocean on which one may
walk, mounting the waves, and, looking off
across the restless surface, see sand and sky,
nothing more. They are unique an ocean,
while tossed by storm, turned to sand, and
Htill like the ocean, the waves rising and fall
ing, only slower. Fitful, unquiet, restless, a
Vagrant country.
The sand hills are desolate, dreary, silent
On a calm day the silence is oppressive.
remember riding up on the top of one of these
drifts Of sand one afternoon when the sun
was sinking well down toward the west, and
it seemed ss if there was nothing around me
but shadows-every cone throwing a 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 oil
among tho hills on the pony after some an
telOpes Of which we had caught sight. 1t was
q still, calm October day-not q breath of
wind, mot cloud in sight l had wandered
over and among the hills for some time when
| stopped to rest on the top of one rather
higher than the others. 1t seemed as Il l
could see thousands of the little round. conical
| hills-each forty or fifty feet high perhaps
each like all the others-each casting q dark,
sem-circular shadow. AS the eve reached
further away the hills seemed to become lost
| and gradually melt into one another, but the
shadows remained, making landscape of
shadows-half shadows. half sunlight. Tho
shadows lay thick and regular over the sandy
waste, as if some giant had gone over the
whole country with huge paint brush, and
touched the landscape regularly with dark
blotches. Their edges almost met, with only
| tracery Of sunlight dividing them. In time
| the view would have grown monotonous, but
then it was strange, unique, bewildering. II
was silence and desolation lying at ones feet
with the soft afternoon sun-a little reddor
than usual, a little like Indian summer
! flooding it with hay 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 I had started after
On top of one OF the hills, gazing toward me
with mild surprise at the fact that thought
was going to get them. Sitting half way
up the side Of almost the next hill was lean
and hungry coyote. At the foot of the one
where | stood lay scattered the bones Of two
or three buffaloes, half buried in the sand,
with their white, spectral looking skulls and
black horns. The rest was sand-sand and
shadows and silence
Ny pony stood with her feet buried in the
sand watching the wolf. Nothing stirred.
It seemed as i: l could feel the silence. Il
pressed down all around 1t was everywhere.
| wondered how far into the edges Of this
desert the noises Of the world without pene-
trated- I 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 up the
hills the whole scene became weird IL
seemed as if was IN labyrinth Of shadows
shut in among the shadows by silence-and
gradually l began 70 doubt whether / knew
the directions, or whether there was such
thing as direction or distance, Only shadows,
and more shadows, and a dead. heavy, a.
most painful silence I wondered il there
was ever any sound here, or if-but there
was-the silence was broken BY dock os
sandhill cranes, flying ever 50 far above that
they looked but little more than specks, but
TIE tapping Of their wings came clear and
distinct Then little borrowing owl few
out Of the next shadow toward the sun AID
tapped its way slowly around snother hill,
and the coyote went in what appeared 70 Ele
would be q rather fruitless pursuit, and tire
autelopes bounded away, looking no bigger
than rabbits As they disappeared among tee
hills and shadows
Tbers was no limit to tie view-hiis and