The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1888-05-17
WtALTZiNG GIANTS.
~1"O'~ VI " Prospector who Mot u Dancing
/. DerYish OF tho Desert.

PrOSpoCtOr Who Mot Dancing
Dervish OF the Desert.
"ou1 IN Nevada" said Joseph Grandle-
"eyer' 70 mining man from White Pine, to
wow York San correspondent, "we have
oiio sublimcst dance that any man over
o"T we call it the dance of the giants
Sfeat cylinders of sand, from eight to
twenty feet in diameter, and sometimes
immensely tall, como carccring across tho
desert with whirling, waltzng motion
that is worry graceful | have often seen
them when they must have been two or
three miles high, for their tops reached up
into the clouds. But oftener thcro will be
one big column, with II lot of little columns
attending it, all waltzing along together
Inc erect IS tho StrangCSt thing imaRin-
able. 1t inspires you with ave. and at the
same time fills you with tho desire to laugh
at the odd performance. And, if the man
Is superstitious, the weird, fantastic sight
can make him feel mighty uncomfortable
they arc never seen except in tho summer
tlme, ana are most frequent in July. They
nave their beginning in somo little, incip-
lent Whirlwind, which snatchcs up hand
1ul OF sand while the surrounding air is
stll, and then they keep on growing and
moving onward.
"They are not like tho cyclones further
east, for they move with very little noise,
and, instead of being funnel shaped, are
Oh the same size from top to bottom. Tho
motion il the same, being both circular
ana advancing. They draw up into tho CYL
hder fabulous quantities of sand, tons of
sage brush, and sometimes good-sizcd
stones. How far they travel nobody can
tcH' Inc very big ones must have Waltzed
hiong III their silent majesty over the lonely
deserts for long distance. They must
traVelth whole distance of the White Pine
Valley, thrco hundred and fifty miles, and
eoiic'ineS thcy come down through Spring
Vaney 1ron Idaho to the Pcranncgat valley
ooo McCann, one of the pioneers Of
Whltc Plne, solemnly declares that he owes
his richest strike to one of these waltzing
giants. lie was plodding along through tho
valley, leading pack mule laden with his
prospecting outfit, when half a dozen sand
columns came dancing silently along. Joo
tried to dodge one of thcm and got right in
the way OF the biggest ono of the whole
gang. 1t picked up him and the mule as
Ihough they wore feathers and backed
'hcnh across the valley in tho livclicst
waltz Joe cvor shook a leg in. He
got so dizzy that he couldn't tell where he
was gong, and he had just made up his
mlnd to be SmothcrCd IN sand and carried
10 Heaven 10y this dancing dervSh of tho
desert, when his feet n ruclI solid ground,
ana after WhIrling about Il few times he fell
into the bed OF Il creek that was almost dry.
When he picked himself up there was the
mule kicking solcmnly and mcthodically at
shower Of sand that was falling around
HIM. The waltzng column had struck a
sido hill and collapsed, as they often do, and
the upper part of the column was lust com.
ing down. Where the foot of the column
struck the bed of the creek it had torn up
the gravel to Il depth Of three or four feet
and exposed some of the richest pockets Of
small nuggets that Joc ever saw. He stayed
with the claim about two months, and
cleaned up nearly ;GO,OOO. TEcn he started
to go back to the States, AID blew in tho
whole pile at Il faro bank in Phoebe. Joo
has wandered through those Nevada val
loys for years since then, but hasn't had tho
luck to be picked out for Il partner by an
other Waltning giant"