THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



western Victoria is a large area, the surface of which is 

 covered with red dust as fine as flour. This dust is 

 constantly lifted into the air by winds, and deposited 

 again, but enormous quantities of it are blown about 

 the world — in the autumn the south-east trades carry 

 some of it as far as the Dutch East Indies, while westerly 

 winds often carry it far out over the Tasman Sea. Samples 

 taken from the sea-floor in that area show the presence 

 of it in deposits of red sludge. Storms have often 

 carried soil from the world's land surfaces far out into 

 the ocean. 



Transporting material is one of the principal tasks of 

 the world's winds. As ''dustmen" they seem determined 

 to get as much "waste material" from the earth's land 

 surfaces into the sea as possible. The sea is their ultimate 

 dumping ground. The material they carry (dusts and 

 pollens of all kinds) may go up to the skies and come 

 down again, but at long last the insatiable ocean must 

 receive large quantities of it, taking it down to the sea- 

 beds. 



The dust thrown into the air by the eruption of the 

 Krakatoa volcano, in the Sunda Strait between Java and 

 Sumatra, in 1883, when the resulting tidal wave drowned 

 36,000 people, caused brilliant sunsets in all countries for 

 years afterwards as it drifted around the world, most of it 

 coming to rest at last in the world's oceans. 



72 



