The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-07-06
PUzzLERs FOR SCIENTISTS.
Whole Acres of Central Kansas Sand Moved
by the Wind.

Whole Acres of Central Kansas Sand Moved
by the Wind.
The broad expanse Of level prairie
which makes up the greater portion
of central Kansas is broken in one
place by range of hills whose ori-
gin is question that has puzzled
scientists. The prairies are easily
explained; they are simply the bed
of vast ocean. The surface con-
tains usually limited amount of
sand evenly distributed This also
is to be expected, for the action of
waves would spread uniformly over
the sea bed the sand washed down
from the bordering mountains. But
here, in the middle of this vast
ocean, is a miniature mountain
chain as distinct from the surround
ing land as if it had dropped from
the skies.
The hills stretch from near Lyons,
Kan, to Hutchinson, distance of
about 25 miles. They form the arc
of a circle and are on the average
four miles in width. The curious
feature of them is that they are
made up wholly of sand, without the
slightest intermixture of any for
eign element, The sand is composed
of fine, diamond shaped particles, so
light that they seek new position
at every breeze, and breezes in Kan
sas are too common to be noticeable.
These beds of sand are much given
to shifting. A heavy wind will
move whole acres of them. Hills so
feet in height will be transferred
little by little a distance of 100
yards, and road between two
mounds-will be found next day en-
tering the very bowels of a single
hill. There is no limit to the curious
tricks the eddying storms will play
with the sand. The effect can be
compared only to that produced by
a high wind on very fine snow.
In many places, however, a long
period of quiet weather has permit
ted a turf to form that can with
stand the action of the elements. In
these spots much fruit is raised, the
best of which is a wild plum re-
nowned throughout the whole state.
But if one digs through this turf the
sand is found beneath and extends
downward to the old prairie level.
AT this point begin the soil, lime
stone strata and conglomerate, ex-
actly the same as in all all the rest
of the region.
This fact proves that the hills
were placed here after the surface
formation had been completed, and
further corroboration is found in
the substances buried beneath the
hills. Borings have uncovered great
cottonwood trees, with the branches
all intact, and bones of antelope and
sandhill crane-two animals which
still linger in this unfrequented re-
gion, though otherwise almost driv-
en- from the state. Even human
bones have been dug up, the re-
mains probably of early travellers
caught in the dangerous sands dur
ing some unrecorded storm. Under
these conditions, especially if the
storm is rotary, like the famous tor
nado, this region forms a natural
deathtrap.
No satisfactory explanation of the
hills has ever been advanced. Early
and less well informed investigators
thought they might be the remnant
of some heavenly body which by
chance had encountered the earth
after the surface formation was
practically finished. Some even went
SO far as to declare them to be the
remnant of the nucleus of comet.
Later on, when the cataclysmic
school of geologists was in the as
cendant, they suggested that some
mighty prehistoric cyclone, as it
swept through the county, had col
lected the sand and had deposited it
here, where the force of the storm
was expended.
Scientists of the present day are
disposed to find a more simple ex-
PLANTATION. They say that as the in
land sea subsided this stretch of