The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-22
WIEN THE EARTH Is HUNGRY.

(From the London Mail.)


When one reads or hears Of some sud
den and violent alteration In the crust o
| this planet Of ours ole instinctiveiy put
It down to something in the way Of vol
canic outburst In most cases 1t Is SO. But
not always. Mother Earth has many fash.
ions OF building up what she likes ani
getting rid Of what she is tired Of.
One hardly wonders that Icdian tribe!
who freQuented the shores Of the Colun.
bia River used to worship as the Aide
vouring One" great cliff near the Cas-
cades, which for many years past has beer
steadily advancing upon the river. with
the evident intention Of plotting ont it
bed and forming a huge lake above. Tn,
will inevitably happen. The mountain
which is 1000 feet high and eight miles
long, has been proved to be moving for
ward and downward at a rate Of one to
three feet year. The railway track
which runs along its base has to be coz
stanly altered. The reason Of this pom
derous landslide Is that the mountain rests
on layer Of soft sandstone, which is
steadily giving way.
The village of Sainte Foy de Tarentaise
IL eastern France seems doomed to be en-
quilted. The base Of the hill on which II
stands is being eaten away by the rapid
waters of the Isere. The houses, some oil
them. show cracks rivaling those Of our
Cheshire Northwich. Some day there win
be ..short, sharp Shock and TarentaIse
will no longer exist.
Islands go and come so constantly that
none but the admiralty keep count Of
them. Submarine volcanoes are RESPONSE
BILE for most of these disappearance. but
others are harder to account for. Metis
Island, for instance, in the South Pacific,
bore no sign of volcanic action about IT,.
1t wss chartered in 1880, its highest point
being $50 feet. Last year it had gone
vanished utterly without leaving trace.
On the site of another small guano island
OF the coast of Southern California recent
soundings showed fifty fathoms of water.
Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay was for
titled by our fleet in the war OF 1912. It
has sunk steadily. till now those fortifca-
lions are under water.
The shifting sands of the great desert
are as hungry as the pitiless sea itself.
Many of the smaller cases in the Sa-
hara 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 in
vestigation showed that it was but one
of thousands. A teeming city of highly
civilized Aryans had long existed on this
spot until the earth lad tired of it and
wiped it out
Until December IS. 1911. the eastern part
of Craighead county, Ark, was one of the
most beautiful and fertile stretches of
prairie imaginable. interpreted with lracs
Of lovely woodland. Pretty rivers ran be-
tween high clay banks, and the country
was rapidly settling. On the morning of
December 10, in place of rivers and rolling
prairie, a great lake rippled in the sunlight.
In the night the whole region, 120 miles
long and so wide, had sunk 90 to 40 feet.
Today the weird lakes of the Arkansas
sunk lands offer the most beautiful scenery
and some OF the best sport in all tie
Southern States.
Nothing is too big or too small to es-
cape the NAV of our hungry globe. Quick
sands are the traps she spreads for smaller
fry. Probably the worst and most danger
Gus in the world are the Shots of the
Sahara. These are perhaps the dregs Of
some prehistoric sea. Now they are COW
cred over with a thick crust of salt and |
'and. Whole caravans. have walked unc n
;ciouely into these death traps and been
quickly swallowed up. Reclus. tie great |
French authority, declares you can sound |
.hese quicksands to depth of 300 feet |
without finding bottom.