The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-04-06
| MAGAZINE REVIEW.
THE DYING EARTH.
According to This Theory The Deserts
Are Spreading.

1
Deserts already exist on the earth
and the namcless horror that attache
10 the word in tie thoughts of all VIZ,
have had experience Of them or are gift
ed with Imagination to conceive is ii
truth greater than We commonly sup
pose. For the cosnic circumstance about
them which il most terrible u not thai
deserts are bus that Deserts have begun
to be. Not as local. evitable evils arr
they only to be pictured but a. the grn
eral unacceptable death grip on our work
For it Il the beginning Of the end What
depauperates tho forests to grass landi
and thence to wastes must in turn at
tack the sea bottoms when they shall
nave parted with their seas. Last 81
che fertile spots upon tie planet BECAUSE
Of the salts the streams have for ages
washed down and 81 the remnant 81
moisture that would stil drain into
them, eventually they must share tbe
fortune Of their predecessors and the
planet roll a parcned orb through space
The picture Il forbiiding; but tic fact
Stems one to which ,ye are constructive
" pledged and into which We are IN
some sort already advanced.
Girding the earth with what Ii takes
but little personitieation I'd hken To TIE
iife extinguishing safpent's coils run two
desert belts OF country. The one fol-
lows. roughly peaking, THE Tr0pie "a
Cancer extending naftliward from III:
the othee, the Tropic Of Capricon. Ari-
zt,ra il in the northern bard, as arc the
Sahara, Arabia and the deserts If Cen.
trail Asia.
Now, these dasest belts are growing.
IN the great desert 81 northern Arizona
the traveller. thyeaSing his way across
q sagebIush and caeti plain shut ii BIZ
abrupt sided shelves of land rising here
and there some hundreds IT feet higher,
suddenly comes upon petriiied forest.
Trunks OF trees in all stages al frac-
ture strew the ground over space some
miles in extent 50 perfect are their
forms he Is almost minded To think the
usual wasteful wool chopper has been
by and left tine scattered products of
his art in Uttered confusion upon the
scene Of his exploit Only heir beau
tifnl color conveys sci OF strange
ness to the eye, and le; ~ down and
touching them be finds i at they are
stone. Chalcadony, not cssbonil Form
has outliyed substance and kept the re.
stmblance, while the particles Of enc orig
iial matter have all been spirited away.
Yet 90 perfect il tile presentment one
can hardly blieye the fact, and where
enc fallen giant Spans little canon one
almost thinks to hear the sound oil
water rushing down the creek
But ii Is some million Of wears and
more since this catastrophe befell, and
the torrent uprooting 1t left it prone.
with limbs outstretclled in futile grasp
upon the other side A confer it was.
cousin only 70 such al grow today. and
aourished probably in the Cretaceous
era, for the land has not been under
water here since the advent Of tertiary
times.
Nowhere near it, except for the rare
cottonwoods along the hank of the Lit
tie Colorado. grows anything today. The
land which once supported these forests
il incompetent to do so now. Yet moth
ing has changed there since except the
decreasing water supply During ter
tiarv and quarternary time the rainfall
las been growing less AMI less Proof Of
this + offered By the great pine oasis
that caps TIE plateau of which these
netrified forests form q part and IS ker.
nelled bv the san Francisco peaks. Tire
height above sea levelsof the spot where
the chalcadony trunks are strewn IS
about $500 feet; the lower present
limit Of the pine in IFS full development
is $500 feet Two thousand feet ND
ard the verdnre line has retreated
since the former forests were. AMI this
+ no local alteration. for upon the other
side Of the plateau petriiitd remains Of
trees are similarly found.
The line Of perpetual green has risen
because in desert regions the moisture is
found most plentiful nearest to the
clouds. from which Il falls upon a.
earth. Streams instead of
gathering volume as they 90 are largest
near their source, and grow less and less
with each fresher mile Of flow. The
brooks descending frbm the Anti-Leban-
an, in SyriasWater the gardens Of Dam
sseus. and thence issuing upon the
plain. lose themselves Just beyond the
threshold of It's gates So in the Arizona
desert. though in lass degree. and
those who live there know Il but too
sell.-Century.