MOUNT BERMUDA 



stant movement of shifting sand would permit the 

 estabhshment and growth of plant life and the slow 

 accumulation of earth and mold. In the course of 

 time there would come another glacial period, with 

 a re-exposing of great extents of surface, and the 

 whirling sands would quickly destroy and bury the 

 plants and the collected soil. And so on, until it 

 seems certain that we can recognize no fewer than 

 four distinct soils, representing as many inter- 

 glacial times of windless warmth. 



As the rain slackened and the afternoon sun grew 

 stronger I saw, from my semi-aquatic seat, the 

 grey and black crags about me. Beneath my hand 

 was a thickened slab with six delicate layers, the 

 fourth twice the depth of the others. I fingered this 

 particular layer, crumbled its edge into sand 

 grains, and flung a handful into the air. And then 

 I tried to imagine the mighty wind which had last 

 swirled these over the dunes and into that other air 

 — hot or cold — which blew over this spot at least 

 fifty thousand years before the first glimmerings 

 of historic human life. And I and my work and my 

 opinions seemed, like Kim, to be very small and of 

 very little account and of no real importance what- 

 ever. I began to muse on what was the use of it all 

 and why bother about anything any longer, and be- 

 cause this, like some charity, is only an inverted 

 form of egotism and conceit, my partner in my silly 

 game of long ago sprang another surprise. I noticed 

 that there was a mist of sorts between me and the 

 stratified sand near by. I looked up and as far as 



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