SAND-DRIFT PROBLEM OF ARID NEW SOUTH WALES. 139) 
Unfortunately no careful observations appear to have 
been made to ascertain whether what is popularly known 
as the ‘‘ Drifting Desert Sands”’ are approaching the better 
and climatically more favoured lands in the Central and 
Hastern Territorial Divisions of the State of New South 
Wales. Itis well known that the western sands are blown 
about by the winds, and the fact that red dust from the’ 
arid regions is carried hundreds of miles by the westerly 
winds is prima facie evidence that at times the sand also is 
blown to the eastward. The rate of progress in this direc- 
tion may beso slow as hitherto to have been almost imper- 
ceptible, but the opinion is ventured that during seasons 
of drought the extent of sand-covered country is consider- 
ably augmented, the direction of the extension of the area 
being governed by the prevailing winds, and although the 
- stronger soils in the vicinity may be improved by a light 
top dressing of sand, it may so happen that they will in 
course of time be covered to such a depth as to render 
them comparatively valueless. 
That the imperceptible eastward trend of the sands has 
not been specially marked in the past, is not sufficient 
ground for assuming that an equally slow rate of progress 
will take place in the future, because up to within recent 
years the land was more or less covered with vegetation, 
but now to an alarming extent vegetable growth of all 
kinds has disappeared, and in the future the sands may drift 
in every dry season instead of during periods of prolonged 
and excessive drought, such as this State has recently 
passed through. ; 
Overstocking undoubtedly reduces the surface of the 
country to a condition that leaves it at the mercy of the 
disastrous westerly winds, the lighter and more valuable 
portions being blown away completely, while the raw sand 
—usually red but sometimes white—left behind accumulates 
