Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-09-19
NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDING.
THE REAL "GARDIN OF ALLAH"
of the Sahara Desert Make Ii Seem
More WonGcrfpi -hnn Ever.

Garrett P. Servss In the New York
American)
The vast sandy desert of the Sahara
covers an area two-thirds great as
the entire United States! If all it's offs
shoots. together with the other deserts
of Africa. are added, they exceed the
United States in extent.
The Sahara Is one of the real wonders
of the world. If it could be redeemed, as
we have redeemed the Far West it would
be able to support 20o10,o00, and per-
haps 50o,O0oOO inhabitants. At present
lit contains about 100000. living on it's
vases, where little water Is found. That
is as If the United States had one inhab-
liant for each one and three-quarter
square miles. But experiments have shown
that in many places there is an abundance
of water deep beneath the sandy cover
ing of the Sahara.
! How the Sahara got into its present
condition is a problem not yet satisfac-
| torilv solved. 1t has been a great, Blasted
| was since the earliest recorded times.
| No scenes that the earth presents have
ever had a greater effect upon the im-
aglnation of mankind than those Of the
Sahara. And now that civilized men have
begun 10 traverse 1t In many directions.
future capabilities and making photo-
graphs of It's astonishing landscapes, its
fascination has been increased.
AS IT REALLY is.
Picture to yourself fierce, hot wind
suddenly rising, blowing with rapidly in-
creasing violence, rolling and ripping the
| sa nds, and finally lifting tons Of them into
| the air. and driving them forward in
1
every living being that they encounter.
! and you will have an idea of what a Sa-
haran SIMON OF SANDSTONE" means.
| Then the natives kneel upon tho sand and
cover their heads with their blankets.
! while their camels, 1.-THE ships of the Ges-
ert.' lie down and place their nostrils
close to the ground that they may get a
little breath
| If there had been no camels. with their
wonderful endurance of fatigue ard their
Yet more wonderful capacity to go for
long periods without food and without
water. even the few human beings who
now dwell within the borders of the Sa-
hara would have been unable to exist
there. 1t is these natural adjustments Of
means to ends which lead many minds
to think that they can evidence Of
great supervising, personal control in ma
ture.
But glance again az these sandy waves
which initiate so faithfully the waves OF
the ocean. You find these forms repeated
not only in the restless waves of the sea,
but in the SHOWS on plains or mountains
wherever the wind has ready access 10
them. and even on any saSdy beach where
either water or wind has free play. You
will notice on the slopes OF some OF the
sandy hllocks long waving marks Ike
the nipples on the shore at Revere beach
or Nantasket Recent Investigation in the
/ Sahara has shown that these sand rip
> ples owe their origin to precisely the same
kind of forces that produce the nipples OF
the seashore only the agent which has
exercised this force Is wind instead or
water But the results are the same,
, and the resemblance is often marvelously
exact.
THE sIROCCO's TRAIL
NJ. Epry. studying these things in the
Sahara. has very ingeniously traced the
course OF the winds that have made tha
ripples The ripples are always found
ON the slopes of the sand waves down
! which the wind has passed obliquely.
. They are the finger marks of the sirocco
left on the surface of the grand waves
of sand which 1t has piled up in its more
furious moments
. But unchanging as the desert seems,
u II nevertheless is as mutahle as the sea
y Itself The waves of sand are driven
4 slowly forward by successive winds, and
their forms changed, so that If for us.
9 looking over the broad surface OF thu
u Sahara, years We're but as seconds Of
time. we should see II actually huctuating.
rolling on in never resting pillows. like
the Atlantic in storm. Thus II is al.
ways burying its past. The most remark.
able examples Of the effect of the SLOW
Trolling onward of waves of wind-driven
: sand have been found in the deserts OF
o Asia, some of which now extend oveI
u lands which centuries ago were thickly
C Inhabited and adorned with cities. Even
extensive lakes have been filled up with
sand in this way, that, at present.
n only the geoogisl can detect their forms.
location.