Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1889-03-02
A SHIFTING DESERT.
Riding Across the Sand-Hills coun-
try of Nebraska.

culiar, writes Fred ii. Carruth in the
Chicago Tribune. Drifted east, west,
north. south, everywhere, by each wind
that blows; whirled up into a conical
peak by the wind of to-day only 70
be blown out into a long, low drift by
that of tomorrow; tossed about hither
and thither like snow by every passing
breezo-these sand dunes have a
strange, uncertain existence almost as
tickle and capricious as the wind itself.
They are shifting, moving desert; an
ever billowy ocean on which one mag
walk, mounting the waves and, looking
off across tho restless surface, see-sand
and sky, nothing more.
They are unique, an ocean while
tossed by storm turned to sand, and
still like the ocean, the waves rising
and falling, only slower. Fitful, I'M
quiet, restless, u vagrant country.
Our road lay among the sand hills for
over hundred miles. Along it we
never saw II house except some half
dozen erected by the railroad company
near its tracks for the seetion-men to
live in the very few others belonging
to settlers in little valleys near the
edge Of tho sand country, where there
was grass enough for few head Of
stock. II was impossible to make any
thing else grow except u little scatter
ing corn, withno ears on il, which look
ed lonesome and disguised. 1t would
not have surprised me to have seen IL
pull its roots out OF the sand and walk
away in search Of soil willing to AS
sist struggling corn in laudable efFor.
to exist.
The sand hills are desolate, dreary,
silent. On 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 sink
ing well down towards the west, and il
seemed rs IL there was nothing around
me but shadows every cone throwing
4 dark shadow halfway up the grayish
yellow side Of the next. had left the
wagon an hour before, rs we were go
ng along the trail four or five miles to
the south, and ridden OIL among tho
oils on the pony after some autclopc5
81 which NO had caught sight. II was
4 still, calm October day not breath
II wind, not cloud in sight. | had
wandered over and among the hills
TOR some time, when stopped TO rest
on the top Of one rather higher than
The others. 1t seemed a5 il could sea-
thousands OF the little round. conlcal
hills each forty Or fifty feet high per.
haps each like all the others each
casting n dark, scmi-circular shadow.
As the eye reached farther away the
hills seemed TO become lost and grudu-
ally melt into one another, but the
shadows remained, making landscape
Of shadows half shadows, half sun.
light. The shadows lay thick and rcg-
ular over the sandy waste, as il 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 II was
strange, unique, bewildering. II was
Silence and Desolation lying at ones
feet with the soft afternoon sun a little
redder than usual, little more like
Indian summer flooding il with hay
light and gradually sinking lower and
lower. while the shadows rose higher
and higher.
some little distance away could see
couple Of the antelopcs | had started
liter, on top Of one Of the hills, gazing
.oward mo with mild surprise at tho
act that thought / was going TO get
hem. Sitting half way up the side Of
Utmost the next hill was lean and
hungry coyote. At the foot Of the one
Yhere | stood lay scattered the bones Of
wo or three buffaloes, half buried in
he sand, with their white, spectral
ooking skulls and black horns. Tho
est was sInd-sand, and shadows. and
Hence.
My pony stood with her feet buried in |
he sand watching the wolf. Nothing
TIRED, 1t seemed as II could feel the |
Hence. 1t pressed down and around
t was everywhere. / wondered how
ar into the edges of this dessert the |
discs OF the world without penetrated,
spoke and it sounded like n voice
rom behind the next sand dune-from
ONE one unseen. 1t was strange--this
eep silence-and as the shadows crept
radually up the hills the whole scene
ecame weird. II seemed as II was IN
labyrinth of shadows shut in among
ne shadows by siloncc-and graduallv
began to doubt whether there was
lch thing as direction or distance
only shadows, and more shadows. and
dead, heavy, almost painful silence
wondered II there was ever any sound
ere or if-but there was-the silence
as broken by a flock Of sandhill cranes
wing over so far above that they looked