Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-03-18
SAND OF THE DESERT.
Pie wind sports with IL and Works
Curious Effects.

Curious Effects.
AS mysterious, as uncomfortable. as
treacherous and as entertaining as the
vast ocean which lies only a few
leagues west of its borders is the great
sea Of sand which forms large por-
known, because OF its proximity to the
river Of that name. as the Colorado
desert.
This desert Is the winds favorite
playground. He comes over the noun
tains from blowing the mighty deep
and works strange fancies in the pill
able sands: he duplicates the great
pillows of the turbulent ocean; he imi-
tates the ripping waves of the placid
sea; he carves and builds and plays
at artist, sculptor and geometrician.
When he becomes weary of his sports
he lashes himself to fury and losses
the sand mile high in the air and
filings 1t broadcast over all the plain,
whirling and hurting the particles till
he obscures the sun and brings a suf-
locating darkness to the land.
On the east side of the desert he is
at present busy engulfing a railroad.
Already he has buried many of the
telegraph poles which stand along the
way, and he has invaded the right of
way of the road. and the company is
busily fighting to hold possession until
a new line. which Is being built around
the intruding hills. shall be completed.
Then the rolling pillows of sand will
be allowed to sweep on undisputed.
In the southwestern portion of the
same desert is another range of travel
Ing hills. These are more wonderful,
however. than the ones which are men,
acing the railroad. for upon these hills
the wind has practiced his skill at
carving geometrical figures. These
hills are known as the Crescent hills
Each is the shape of true crescent,
the points Of which are toward the
east. A hill which is fifty feet high is
found TO be 100 feet thick at the base
and 200 feet from point to point of the
duplicate horns OF the crescent. II a
hill is twice that height its other d.
mansions will be found to have dou-
bled also. Little and big. they keep
their proportions as they move slowly
across the plain.
In crossing the desert one frequently
finds footprints Of men and animals.
not indented in the yielding sands, but
standing above the level of the earth
supported by tiny sand columns six
inches to one foot in height. This phe-
nomenon is easily accounted for. The
SO called sand Of the Colorado desert
Is really fine particles of silt, for that
region was at one time the bottom Of
the gulf of California when that body
OF water extended north a couple Of
hundred miles farther than at the pres
ent time. There are certain adhesive
properties to this silt, and under the
weight of man or beast the particles
cling together and become stationary
Instead of continually drifting before
the wind, which continues its work of
erosion upon the impressed soil about
the tracks, soon leaving them stranded
In the air. Thus the footprints In the
sands Of time" become monuments Of
passing events.
In Death valley the phenomenon is
reversed. There forty years after a
wagon party went to its death In that
valley the course of the party was cas-
lily traced by the tracks made four
decades before. Here the peculiar ma
ture Of the soil was such as to prevent
erosion of the earth about the tracks.
The winds carried continually over the
soil sand brought from another part of
the valley, often filling the ruts and as
often emptying them again. 1t was
only few years ago that the trail of
1.-THE Pathfinder" John C. Fremont,
was easy to follow across a portion of
the Mojave desert in a region possess
ed Of a similar formation. Many and
many time was the trail covered
inches deep beneath drifting sands, on
ly to be again rescued from submer-
sion by the same tickle winds.
In many places In the desert has the
wind left his autograph in sand rifles
and sinuous, ripping waves, like the
waves Of a sheet Of water when the
gentle breezes set them dancing in
playful mood or like the rifles upon
the surface of pebble fretted stream.
New York Tribune