The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-12-09
FACTS ABOUT DESERTS.
The Uubroken Tracts of Sand Not S
Extensive as Generally Supposed.

AAe OuDroAen tracts OF sand Not 5
Extensive as Generally Supposed.
Only one degree less incorrect than the
idea of their submarine origin is the no.
ton that deserts consist Of ttnbroken
tracts of sand. 1t is true that such tracts
IN certain districts may extend on every
side as far as the eye can reach and even
much farther, but sooner or later ridges
and bands of pebbles or of solid rock will
be met with cropping up among the sand,
while frequently, as in the Liby an desert,
there are mountain ranges rising to a
height Of several thousand feet above the
level of the plain. And it is these ex-
posed rocks which form the source
whence the sand was aid still is de-
rived. Such mountains naturally attract
what moisture may remain III the air,
and in their valleys are found a more or
less luxuriant vegetation. Gases, too.
where the soil is more or less clayey, oc-
that animal and vegetable life attains
the maximum development possible in the
heart Of the desert.
In the most arid and typical part of the
Libyan desert the sand is blown into
large dunes, which are frequently fiat
topped and show horizontal bands of
partly consolidated rock, and between
these are open valleys, partly covered
with sand and partly strewn with blocks
or rock polished and secured by the sand
blast. In such sand wastes the traveller
may journey for days without seeing
signs of vegetation or hearing the call of
4 bird or the hum of an insects wing.
But even in many of such districts it is
Il mistake to suppose that vegetable and
animal life Is entirely absent throughout
the year. In the western Sahara, for in
stance, showers generally 1uoisten the
ground two or three times a year, and
after each of these a short-lived vegeta-
ton springs suddenly up, and if no other
form of animal life is observable at least
d few passing birds may be noticed.
Among the most important and extern
sive deserts of the world we have first the
Great Sahara, with an approximate area
of 10000 square miles, nearly connected,
with which is the great desert tract OK
tending through Arabia, Syria, Mesopota-
mia and Persia. BY means Of the more
or less desert tracts of Baluchistan, Sind
and Kuch this area leads Oh to the great
Rajputana desert of India. More impor-
tant is the vast Cobb desert of Mongolia
Southern Africa there is the great Kala-
hari desert. of which mere anon In
North America there is a large desert tract
lying east of the Rocky mountains and in
Guiding great part: of Sonora. while in
the southern half Of the new world there
is the desert of Atacuiila. on the borders
of Peru and Chilli. Lastly, the whole of
the interior of Australia is a desert of the
most arid and typical description.
But among these there are deserts and
deserts. Tracts of the typical barren
sandy type arc, as already said, extensive
ly developed in the Sahara, as they arc
in the Cobb and the Australian deserts.
Between such and the plains Of the At
rican weld there is an almost complete
transition, so that it is sometimes hard
under the designation of desert at all.
\ case in point is afforded by the South
African Kalahari. Although there are
endless rolling dunes of tractless sand and
rivers are unknown, yet in many places
there is extensive forest. and after Il rain
large tracts could scarcely be called a des-
ert at all. H. A. Dryden, for instance,
when describing the Kalahari, writes as
follows: "And vet during the brief weeks
of rainfall no land can assume a fairer or
more tempting aspect. The long grasses
shoot up green, succulent and elbow deep:
flowers spangle the weld in every direction
the giraffe acacia forests robed in fresh
dark green remind one of nothing 50 much
as an English deer park; the bushes bios
som and flourish: the air is full Of fra
GRANGE and pans Of water lie on every
side. Another month and all is drouth;
the pans are dry again and travel is full
of difficulty" During the grassy season
herds of springbok used to migrate in the
old days to Kalahari, in the northern part
of which CRATES live the whole year. al
though they must exist without tasting
water for months.