The Opelousas courier., 1891-01-24
MOVING HILLS OF SAND.
VAST TRACKS OF LAND DEVAS-
TATED BY MIGRATORY DUNES.
Cities Destroyed and Fertile Fields
Made q Desert by Irresistible SAND
Drifts-Memorable C~atastrophes.

Suul ID ny ho
various parts of the earth's surface, and,
not unfrequently whole villages and
towns have thereby been overwhelmed
and destroyed. To such shifting mounds
the name of "dunes" is usually given by
biologists, and from a similar root the
more familiar term of sdowns'' seems to
be derived. DuEes Or downs of sand
are commonly found within o short way
from the seashore, being composed OF
the fine particles cast up by the waves,
and afterward dried in the sun, and
carried inland to a greater or lesser dis
lance by the wind. The coasts of Hol-
land present an example of vast quanti-
ties of detritus taken down to the sea in
the first instance by rivers, and subse-
ouently thrown back upon the land,
forming long chains of sand-hills, or
downs. The shores of France, Spain
and various other countries exhibit the
same phenomena at particular points.
On the shores of the Bay of Biscay,
moving sands are SO common as to have
occasioned much injury to the land and
the inhabitants, both in early and recent
times.
About the year 1770, a whole village
near st. Pol de Leon, in Brittany, was
so completely buried by one great move
ment of drift-sand, that nothing could
be seen of it but the spire of the church.
In the same region, according to Culver,
these dunes advance with irresistible
force, burying forests in their route, and
impelling before them lakes of fresh
water, derived from the rains which can
not ind a way through them into the
sea. 'sone village in the department of
the Landes, named Mimisan, has been
struggling for twenty years against them;
and one sand-hill, more than sixty feet
high may be said to be seen advancing
hourly. In 1902, the propelled lakes in
vaded five fine farms belonging to Saint
julien, they have long since covered a
Roman causeway leading from Bordeaux
to Bayonne, and which was seen about
forty years since, when the waters were
vet in a low state. The river Adour,
also, hasNbeeh turned out of its former
course by the same causes"
Sometimes assuming the shape of coni-
,.al mounds, and sometimes appearing in
the form of flat heaps or masses, these
Shifting sands have also done much harm
at different periods on the British coasts.
In Suffolk, in the year I5s8, part of
Downham "a name ominous 7 indicative
of the character of the district was over
whelmed by sands which had begun to
move, about one hundred years before,
from a point about five miles to the
southwest. The drifting mass travelled
over the intervening distance in the course
of the century, and covered more than a
thousand acres of land. On the north
coast of Cornwall, a considerable extent
of country has been inundated by sands,
constituting hills several hundred feet in
height. So completely have these vast
mounds shifted their whole bulk from
spot to spot, that the ruins of ancient
buildings, originally overwhelmed by
them, have again been laid bare in the
rear of their line of progress. A pot of
old coins was found in the anne situa-
ton in one instance, by which a guess
could be made at the period of entomb.
ment. The changes had certainly oceu-
pied many centuries.
Many other examples of these sand-hill
phenomena might be selected; but
enough has been said regarding sea.borne
sands. There are drifting sands of q diff
ferent character, which have effected far
greater changes on the face Of the earth,
and have far more deeply influenced the
comforts and affected the lives Of its in
habitants. What were the original limits
Of the desert-sands, and what the former
condition of many regions now covered
by them, it is scarcely possible to deter
mine; but certain ii is that they have
shifted to an immense extent within the
knowledge of man, and haS~, produced
pdeplorable consequences, BY the action,
seemingly, of the west wind, the sands
of the African interior have been gFadu-
ally forced In more and more upon the
banks of the Nile, until they have en-
quilted many cities, and the ruins OF
cities, and have covered a great portion
of the tillage lands of Egypt. The num-
Der of cities, towns, and villages thus
effaced from the earth is too large to be
calculated. The French traveller, Demon,
tells III that their SUBMITS still appear
externally in many instances, and feel
ingly observes, that "nothing can be
more melancholy than to walk over vii
lagos swallowed up by the d~esert-sands,
to trample under foot their roofs, to
strike against the peaks of their temples,
and to reflect that here were cultivated
fields, that here grew lofty trees, and
that here were even the homes and habi'
tations of men, nd that all have
vanishedi"
These remarks will bring to the mind
of many readers theSburied condition in
which the majority of the recovered
sculptures and monuments of Egypt were
found, and particularly the great Sphinx,
the base of which extraordinary piece of
| sculpture was sunk thirty or forty feet in
the sands, having little more than it,
massive head above ground, to point out
where it stood. Although the desert
sands, however, have wrought such vas
apparent ruin, by swallowing up the
| glorious monuments of past ages, there
is q degree of consolation to be derived
from this very fact-this very engulf
ment. The sands are in one sense con
SENATORS of the things they entomb. B,
no other mode of interment or keeping
could the fine sculptures, stuccoes ant
paintings discovered by Burckhardt
Beechey and Belzoni have been handed
down to Is in so perfect a state. Mr.
Lyail, who makes this remark, points i
mt alsn 10 nor inanrohalIn that a. rand