STALAGM ITES = OF SAND. 
- MELLARD READE 
Park eae Dbivideillecnite, near Liverpool. 
E mode in which stalagmites in limestone caves are built up by 
accretion of carbonate of lime from water constantly dropping on 
the same spots is familiar to most people. It was rather an 
interesting surprise to me to find that stalagmites of sand under 
certain conditions are a possibility. This phenomenon I observed 
some years ago on the shore at Hightown, and noted it for 
future use 
A bed of peat situated on the upper part of the shore beyond the 
reach of all but spring tides had a projecting edge overhanging the 
sand of the shore below, which was then in a dry state. Over the 
surface of the peat on which a small quantity of sand was scattered 
a little water trickled, and fell over the edge at several points in 
distinct drops. The vertical fall was not more than six or eight 
inches. Under each drop a little pillar of sand was being built up, 
and there were others standing where the water had ceased to drop. 
Some of them were several inches high. On examination I found 
that each drop of water took with it a few grains of sand, the 
accumulation of which gradually built up a pillar. The first drop of 
water produced a cup-like depression in the surface of the shore, but 
gradually a pillar became erected which still preserved the cup-like 
depression on the top. The phenomenon was contrary to ordinary 
experience, which would have suggested that a pillar of sand 
cemented only with water was an impossibility. 
The ‘stalagmites’ assumed different forms, some having a circular 
stem, smallest at the base, with a spreading cup or corolla at the top. 
Others simulated a stem of coral, while those that had been built up 
beyond the strength of their foundations became pyramids of ropy 
Matter. It was singular to see with every drop a glistening pulsation 
travel through the sand pillar. : 
My son, M. Treleaven Reade, has succeeded in manufacturing 
“sand-stalagmites’ in the following way. He took a circular tin 
vessel and drilled a hole nearly through, finishing it by puncturing 
with a needle. Then, filling it with finely sifted sand, he placed it 
Over a larger vessel filled with dry sand. On adding water sufficient 
to liquefy the sand and make a drip through the hole, each drop took 
with it a grain or two of sand, gradually building up a sand-pillar 
before the eye. The phenomenon is evidently due to capillarity. 
The dry foundation of sand sucks the superfluous water from the 
Sand-column as each drop falls, leaving only the capillary water 
June 1891 
