The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-22
Geographical Peculiarities of
the United States BY TEE1ERIC J: HASkN

laee struggling in the mud for an eX'
istence, and before map makers Tecog-
niZed Chicago, Sitka WAS thriving city
under Russian dominion. It's quaint
old church and moss.covcrcd stores tell
their own story of an honorable and
ancient past. Sitka is 300 miles from
the State of Washington aud occupies
a longitude about 700 miles west of
San Francisco. For many Years it was
the government seat of region that
extends far into the strange and silent
North On the shortest day of tho year
the sun is only visible about twenty
minutes, wolfe during the summer
months it is so light that ono can see
to read a newspaper or take photo
graph al midnight. The posters nu'
nouncing baseball at 10 p. III. con.
/ vince the traveller that he is really IN
| the land of the midnight sun.
Sand has played an important part
| in the geological makeup of our
country, not SO much in the structural
work as in the peculiar conditions 1T
! creates In the desert lands of the
! West, much to the distress of supersi.
tious Indians, there are mountains Of
! sand that move certain distances with
the shifting OF the wind. The blowing
of the wind changes the shape of the
mounds and gradually moves them on.
ward across the plains. Golden Park,
| San Francisco. is built almost entirely
on great sand dunes, reclaimed from
| the vagabond existence they had led nj
| the viii OF wind and wave They were
| planted in coarse grass and flowers and
converted into a garden spot. In Louis
| lana the famous trembling pralrles are
/ dangerous quicksands covered with
/ tangle OF grasses and flowers, 'rearh.
| erous lure 10 unwary cattle and some
times to people.
Al Manchester, bv-t Sea, Massa.
chusetts, and Long Beach. Ocean coun
! ty. New Jersey. are the wonderful
singing sands" that produce sounds
| as weird and as musical as the famous
sands of the Hawaiian coast. The sands
arc hcaped In dunes and when the wind
blows the grains slip and slide down the
sides of the elevations, producing q
! cumming. singing sound. Handfuls of
this sand rubbed between the fingers
Will produce the same notes 4 great
under-curreut of sand is ever flowing
down the Missouri river The waters
wear down mountain rocks far above
and bring the sand down in great
+; stream. Sometimes ii flows past Kan
sas City at a depth Of fifty feet. Ths
sand flows slower and slower until il
finally falls inert i'm the bed Of The
Mississippi river where the current iI
too sluggish to take it all the way ~
the Gulf.
Earthquakes, disastrous as they seem
to be, are not without their uses. They
have made or marred Kingdoms in day,
and in the dawn of the world were fac
tors in land building, In their atteu-
tion to big jobs they have not neglected
little ones a well in San Francisco
is proof Of this. In the rear of the
| t,,,r "a IaIo ms fl,n, "a,
we'll a simple. ordinary well. operated
by a pump. After the "quake.' when
things began TO Teadjust themselves,
IL was found that no pump would be
needed at this particular well, The
water was flowing out In steady
stream in true artesian style-nature s
small compensation for the great havoc
she had wrought.
IT You ever have the good fortune to
go driving with some citizen of Homo"
lulu through the fair valleys near his
beautiful city You will find that he in.
variably casts his weather eve toward
"a particular valley and more than likely
will postpone drive that would take
him in that direction in the late after
noon. He Will tell YOU that it rains there
every day at almost the same hour,
that peculiar atmospheric conditions
bring this about. and that IL is known
TO all as the "Nalley of Rain The
fact seems plausible and prosaic enough,
but ask the flower -decked natives Of the
valley and they will tell YOU another
tale one that has no dealing with the
weather charts, currents of air and
cumulus clouds.
,
They Will tell you of a rarely beauti
full maiden, who was murdered there
long ago by an enraged lover because
. ne thought she had betrayed him to q
god The maiden, innocent OF the
charge, was great favorite with tho
gods, and in memory of her goodness
o they decreed that a gentle rain should