The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1908-06-17
WARNED BY DESERTS
What These Sandy Wastes Mean
TO Mother Earth.
A DEATH GRIP ON THE WORLD

ney lnosca1e n 6e0jnnln0 OF h
End Of Our Beautiful Planet, Which
10 Doomed TO Roll Through Space .
Parched and Lifeless Orb.
Deserts already exist on the earth,
and the nameless horror that attaches
to the word In the thoughts Of all who
have had experience Of them or are
gifted with imagination to conceive Is
in truth greater than we commonly
suppose, for the cosmic circumstance
about them which Is most terrible Is
not that deserts are, but that deserts
have begun to be. Not az local evita-
bic evils are they only to be pictured,
but as the general unacceptable death
grip on our world, for It Is the begin
ming Of the end. What depauperates
the forests to grass lands and thence to
wastes must in turn attack the sea bot
toms when they shall have parted with
their seas.
Last Of the fertile spots upon the
planet because Of the salts the streams
have for ages washed down and Of the
remnant Of moisture that would still
drain into them, eventually they must
share the fortune Of their predecessors
and the planet roll a parched orb
through space. The picture is forbid
ding, but the fact seems n to which
we are c~onstructively pledged and into
which we are in some sort already ad-
ventured.
Girdling the earth with what it takes
but little pe~rsonifcation to liken to the
life extinguishing serpent's coils run
two desert belts Of country. The one
follows, roughly speaking, the tropic Of
Cancer. extending n%orthward from it;
the other, the tropic Of Capricorn. Arr
IONA is in the northern band. as are the
| Sahara, Arabia and the deserts of GEN.
/ trail Asia.
Now, these desert belts are growing.
In the great desert of northern Arizona
the traveller, threading his way across
a sagebrush and cacti plain shut in by
abrupt sided shelves Of land rising here
and there some hundreds Of feet high
er, suddenly comes upon a petrifed for
est.
Trunks of trees in all stages Of frac-
ture strew the ground over q space
some miles in extent. So perfect are
their forms he is almost minded to
think the usual wasteful woodchopper
has been by and left the scattered
products of his art in Uttered confu-
sion upon the scene Of his exploit
Only their beautiful color conveys a
sense Of strangeness to the eye, and
leaning down and touching them, he
finds that they a~re-stone; chalcedony
not carbon! Form has outllved sub
stance and kept the resemblance. while
the particles Of the original matter
have all been spirited away. Yet 81
perfect is the presentment n ca1
hardly believe the fact, and where on
fallen giant spans a little canyon ont
almost thinks to hear the sound Of wa
ter rushing down the creek.
But 1t Is some millions of years ani
more since this catastrophe befell. ant
the torrent. u%prcoting it. left it prone
with limbs outstretched in futile grasl
upon the other side. A confer it was
cousin only to such as grow today. ant
lourished probably in the c%retaceou:
era. for the land has not been unde,
water here since the advent Of tertiar.
times.
Nowhere near it, except for the rar
cotton woods along the bank Of the Lit
tie Colorado. grows anything today
The land which once supported thes'
forests is incompetent to do SO now
Yet nothing has changed there sine
except the decreasing water sup
ply. During tertiary and quaternar.
time the rainfall has been growing les
and less. Proof Of this is offered b.
the great pine oasis that caps the pla
teau Of which these petriied forest
form a part and Is kerneled by the Sal
Francisco peaks. The height abov
sea level Of the spot where the chal
cedony trunks are strewn Is abou
4,500 feet. The lower present limit o
the pine in its full development l
$500 feet. Two thousand feet upwar,
the verdure line has retreated since tn
former forests were. And this Is n
local alteration, for upon the other sid
Of the plateau petrifed remains Of tree
are similarly found.
The line Of perpetual green has rise
because In desert regions the moistur
is found most plentiful nearest to tn
clouds from which It falls upon
parching earth. Streams, instead Q
gathering volume as they go. are la,
gest near their source and grow les
and less with each fresh mile Of dov
The brooks descending from the Ant
Lebanon, In Syria, water the garden
Of Damascus and, thence issuing upo
the plain, lose themselves just beyon
the threshold Of its gates. So in tn
Arizona desert, though In a less d.
gree, and those who live there know
but too welL.-From Percival Lowell
"A1ars and the Future of the Earth
In Century.
RrAakind WirA.