The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-09-26
OIIR HUNGRY GLOBE.
MOTHER EARTiI'S METHOD OF FILL
ING HER fAPAciOuS NAV.


cent Chunks OF the World That
May BE Swallowed Up at Any Mo-
,ueut ns others Have Beer Before
In our Planets Pitiless Traps.
When one reads or hears Of some
sudden and violent alteration In the
cr,st of this planet Of ours one in
stinctiycly puts lit down to something
in the way of volcanic cutburst. In
,1ost cases 1t Is so. But not always.
Mother Earth has many fashions Of
building up what she likes and getting
rid Of what she Us tired Of.
one hardly wonders that Indian
rifles who frequented the shores Of the
columbia river used to worship as the
"All Dcyouring One" great c!if near
tho Cascades. which for many years
mast has bee steadily advancing upon
,he river, with the evident intention
of blottlng out its bed and forming a
huge lake above. This will inevitably
happcn. The mountain, which is 1000
feet high and eight miles long, has
hccn proved to be moving forward and
downward mt rate Of one to three
feet year. The railway track, which
runs along its base has to be constantly
altered. The reason Of this ponderous
landslide is that the mountain rests on
q layer of soft sandstone, which is
steadily giving way.
The village Of Sainte Foy de iTaren.
taise in eastern France, seems doomed
to be ingulfed. The base of the hill
on which it stands is being eaten away
by the rapid waters of the Isere. Tho
houses, some Of them, show cracks
riyaling those Of our Cheshire North
wicll. Some day there will be "short,
sharp shock" and Tarentaise will no
longer exist.
Islands go and come so constantly
that none but the admiralty keeps count
of them. Submarine volcanoes are re-
sponsble for most OF these disappear
anccS, but others are harder to account
for. Nletis island, for instance, In the
south Pacific, bore no sign Of volcanic
action about 1t. 1t was charted In
1850, its highest point being $50 feet.
In 1890 1t had gone-vanished utterly
without leaving trace. On the site Of
another small guano island of the
coast Of southern California recent
soundings showed SO fathoms Of water.
Tangier island In Chesapeake bay was
fortified by the English feet in the war
OF 1912. 1t has sunk steadily, till now
those Notifications are under water.
The shifting sands Of the great des-
crt are rs hungry as the pitiless sea
itself. Many OF the smaller oases In
the Sahara have disappeared from
sight In an hour or two, buried deep
by the deadly simoom.
Some 400 miles southeast Of the old
city Of Kashgar, far out In the yellow
desolation Of the desert Of Cobb, the
great Swedish explorer Sven Hedin
saw something projecting from the
smooth side of one Of the long dunes.
1t was the wooden roof Of house.
Further investigation showed that it
was but one Of thousands. A teeming
city Of highly civilized Aryans had
long existed on this spot until the
earth had tired Of It and wiped 1t out.
Until Dec. 18. 1911, the eastern part
OF Cralghead county. Ark, was one
Of the most beautiful and fertile
stretches Of prairie imaginable, inter-
spcrsed with tracts Of lovely wood
land Pretty rivers ran between high
clay banks, and-the country was rapid
ly settling. On the morning of Dec.
-, in place Of riTers and rolling prairie,
great lake rippled In the sunlight. In
the night the whole region, 12O miles
long and 60 wide, had sunk 20 to 40
feet Today the weird lakes Of the
Arkansas sunk lands offer the most
beautiful scenery eld some Of the
best sport in all the southern states.
Nothing Is too big or too small to es-
cape the nav OF our hungry globe.
Quicksands are the traps size spreads
for smaller fry, Probably the worst
and most dangerous In the world are
the Shots Of the Sahara. These
are perhaps the dregs OF some prehis-
toric sea. Now they are covered over
with a thick crust OF salt and sand.
Whole caravans have walked uncoa-
sciously into these deathtraps and
been quickly swallowed up. Reclus,
the great French authority, declares
you can sound these Quicksands to
depth of 300 feet without finding bot
tom.-London Mall