Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1921-09-22
Queer Dust Tracks.

cult, recently reported in news dis
| patches, is not such an uncommon &C.
currence in that par, of the world, or
even in mid-ocean," says a bulletin of
the National Geographical Society from
Washington. d. G.
Besides the dust fall on the ocean,
which on the face Of il seems joke,
there are sometimes yellow rains in the
Yukon and red SHOWS in Greenland and
other Arctic and Alpine regions" the
bulletin adds.
"The yellow rains, so called because
the ground becomes covered with Pc
culiar fine yellow deposit, are usually
found to be caused by the pollen of
pine trees growing miles and miles dis
tant, which is caught up by the winds,
and carried until their fury has abated,
and then dropped The red snow seen
in the Arctic is made by wind placed
deposit of the motile aleae, Chlamy-
domonas, in the neclei of which are red
pigment spots. Other kinds of algae
somtimes reproduced in such numbers
that they form the greenish deposits
seen in fresh water.
/ 1--WE are all more or less familiar
with the popular fallacy that 'it rains
/ tadpoles.' OF course, the thinking man
who knows that when the sun cannot
varorize the salt in the ocean and carry
it into the clouds, it would be impos-
siole for 1t TO pick up tadpole in any
state of its evolution and hold it float
ing above us long enough for it to grow
legs and lose its tail. The appearance
OF small toads after a rain in summer
is very easily explained, as they must
keep to damp, cool places when thew
first come from the water and the rain
and consequent dampness of the earth
and atmosphere give them more lati-
tude for their adventure than thew DOS
sessed before the shower.
Dust, however, that bane of the
housekeeper and the curse of the au-
tomoblle tourist, plays a vital part in
our lives. Though it sometimes seems
to suffocate us, without it we could
nave no rain as the vapor would not
condense and without its power Of re-
traction our daylight would not be so
bright, and the coloring of our sum
SETS would be almost entirely lost.
The losses of Northern China, a fine
yellow powder brought bv the winds
from the desert regions beyond and
deposited in places several hundred
feet in thickness has been titled for
thousands of years, without anv arti-
neral fertilization and without signs
or exhaustion. Beds of volcanic dust
are no be found in Kansas and Me-
braska today, in some places as much
as 80 feet in thickness, though there
were no volcanoes in the past and none
at present within hundreds of miles of
the deposits. The wind is the cuInrit
or benefactor.
Steamers out in the middle of the
Atlantic often have their sails REDEEM
ed with dust blown from the Sahar.
and sometimes the rains of southern
europe are colored by dust from the
same source. In 1901 four DAYS of
march winds are believed to have
spread over Central Europe about two
millions tons of Sahara dust, most of
1t being carried as far as the Baltic
Sea.
Wlnd-olown dust also gives rise
10 some interesting phenomena. When
DUST rails on glaciers or deposits of
snow near the mountain tops, every
DUST particle melts its way through the
ice, sometimes several inches in depth
and If there are great MANY OF these
oustwelis' the mountain climber
must watch his step. Use was made of
this knowledge by engineers in melting
SHOWS preliminary to the building nf
the New Bergan Railway in Southern
Norway.
1T is probable that no mountain
top is high enough above the earth
to be entirely free from some dust
especially that thrown out during VOL
canlc eruptons. In great explosion.
such as that of Krakatoa in 1885. dust
is shot into the upper atmosphere rath-
er than picked up by it. Dust par
ticies from Krakatoa travelled around
the world, some of it completing its
hrst trip in fifteen days. Before this
giant shook the world with its mighty
upheaving we were ignorant of the
winds that prevailed at above ten miles