ACTION OP WIND 281 



by it. In the arid lands o£ Central Asia the air is also reported 

 as often laden with fine detritus which drifts like snow around 

 conspicuous objects and tends to bury them in a dust drift. 

 Even when there is no apparent wind, the air is described as 

 often thick with fine dust, and a yellow sediment covers every- 

 thing. In Khotan this dust sometimes so obscures the sun that 

 even at midday one cannot see to read fine print without the 

 aid of a lamp. The tales of the overwhelming of travelers and 

 entire caravans by sand storms in the Great Desert of Sahara 

 are familiar to every schoolboy. Greatly exaggerated though 

 these may be, the accounts qi Layard and of Lof tus show us that 

 the sand storms which are of frequent occurrence during the 

 early part of summer throughout Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and 

 Susiana are by no means of insignificant proportions. Layard 

 states that during the progress of the excavations at Nimrud, 

 whirlwinds of short duration but almost inconceivable violence 

 would suddenly arise and sweep across the face of the country, 

 carrying along with them clouds of dust and sand. Almost utter 

 darkness prevailed during their passage, and nothing could resist 

 their force ; the Arabs would cease their work and crouch in the 

 trenches almost suffocated and blinded by the dense cloud of 

 fine dust and sand which nothing could exclude. 



The accounts of Loftus are equally impressive. Describing 

 their departure from Warka to Sinkara, he says: *'A furious 

 squall arose from the southeast and completely enveloped us 

 in a tornado of sand, rendering it impossible to see within a 

 few paces. Tellig and his camels were as invisible as though 

 they were miles distant. A continuous stream of the finest sand 

 drove directly in our faces, filling the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth 

 with its penetrating particles, drying up the moisture of the 

 tongue, and choking the action of the lungs." With such 

 descriptions before one it is not difficult to believe that these 

 ruined cities have in the course of centuries been completely 

 hidden and their sites obscured by mounds of wind-drifted 

 sand and dust. 



We need not, |iowever, confine ourselves wholly to the Old 

 World for illustrations. Not longer ago than May of 1889 a 

 dry southwesterly wind which for several days had prevailed 

 in various parts of the Northwest, particularly in Dakota, cul- 

 minated in a storm peculiarly suggestive from a gelogical 



