The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1907-01-17
CARDS
4.l
TIE FIRE q -Es, THAT SWEEP AND
WRECK SElSTAN.

demOnium of Noise, Sand and Dust.
Every one who has visited Seistan or
written about Seistan has mentloneu
its celebrated wind, called the ''Dad-l-
tsad-o-bist eroz," or wind Of l2O days,
which blows in the summer. Few or
these have had the misfortune to ex-
perience it, but as we went through
two seasons of this wind we are able
to say something, about it. 1t more
than justifies it's reputation. 1t sets In
at the end Of May or the middle or
June and blows with appalling vio-
lence and with little or no cessation till
about the end of September. 1t always
blows from one direction, little west
of north, and reaches velocity or
more than seventy miles an hour. 1t
creates a pandemonium Of noise, sand
and dust and for time gets on ones
nerves, but it is in reality q blessing In
disguise, for it blows away the insects
which from April to June make lie in
Seistan a perfect pufgatory. mitigates
the awful summer heat and clears the
country of typhus, smallpox and other
diseases rife in the country in May and
June. One would think this 12O day
wind enough, but violent winds prevail
all through the Writer from December
to April, and billiards. are OF constant
occurrence These winds always come
from the same direction. The winter
billiards are terrible, and the wind at
tains terrific velocity. In blizzard
at the end Of March the thermometers
registered a maximum Of 12O miles all
hour. The average velocity for whole
sixteen hours was more than eighty
eight miles an hour
The extraordinary frequency and VIC
lence of the Seistan wind and the reg
ularity with which it blows from the
same quarter are very remarkable.
That it has blown from the same quar-
ter in past ages is proved by the fact
that all the ruins OF SeiStan are built
at the same angle, with Their front and
back walls at a right angle to the
wind and their side walls III the saline
angle as the wind. No wind can blow
with such violence and frequencJ
without leaving it's mark on the c0ul
try it's ellects are everywhere visi &c
in Seistan. Everything looks VIM
swept and wind stricken. Over the
greater part of the country not single
tree exists.
The present villages and habitationS
are all built with their backs present
ing lines of dead walls on the wind
ward side. The old ruins are oriented
at exactly the same angle on account
of the wind. The effect of wind is ev
erywhere visible on these ruins. Their
bases are undercut by wind as though
by water action The thickness of the
walls, the excellent quality Of the
burned bricks made and used by the
ancient inhabitants for the love-
courses of their buildings and the ex
treme hardness and durability of the
Seistan soil when made into the sun
dried bricks of which the upper por
tons of the ruins are composed, have
the destructive effect of the
wind in wonderful manner, but il
the older ruins we often find that the
walls facing the wind have entirely
and only the side walls re-
main, while in still older ruins only
one or two solitary pinnacles remain to
mark what were once large, massive
and extensive buildings.
The wind has buried large tracts of
the country under sand. Many of the
old ruined towns are wholly or partly
I'D
goes on all the year and every year and
Is covering up not only valuable lands
but inhabited villages. In Seistan, as
elsewhere, the invading army of sand
Is preceded by lines of skirmishers in
the form of travelling ''burkhans,"
horseshoe shaped sand hills, which
steadily advance until they meet some
obstacle which retards them until the
come up to their support and
bury all before them under hills of sand.
On our arrival in Seistan we found
a big and fOurishing village.
built on the south side of q high ridge
for protection from the wind. Before
we left the sand had attacked that
ridge. surrounded it and buried the
village forcing the inhabitants to build
a new village elsewhere. An eXamr :
Of still greater rapidity was afforded
at the village of Kilaikohna Up to
June, 1904, this village had a large.
deep pond on it's northern side. By
September that is, less than three
deep pond was converted
into sand hill some ten feet high.
The wind, however, did not confine
It's energy to burying only. While it
covers some tracts deep in sand, it also
sweeps other tracts clear of sand, rem
lering valuable land available for cul- |
tivation and exposing long buried ruins
once more to view. These are, how |
ever, only the milder effects of wind !
action. The Seistan wind in it's more
destructive moods has in places re-
moved not only sand from place to
place, but has secured away the whole
face of the country. Everywhere we
find the sides and banks of the canals
which irrigated the lands on which the /
1wellers of the old ruins depended left /
like walls high above the pres
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