ae 
———e 
_1 Aprin, 1902.] QUsENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 279 
during other dry times) by destruction of the vegetable-growth which checked 
the working of a sand-dune ; anything which causes the soil to be loosened in a 
drought time (which is just the time when a great destruction of weeds and 
scrubby undergrowth takes place) will set the surface free to travel, because a 
drought season ts always a windy season. 
Let no one suppose that that this travelling sand is a false alarm, or a 
light matter, or unimportant, for it is really a very, very great evil, already 
serious, and likely to become greater, because on a large scale only a mountain 
range can stop it. It appears to be advancing with a front of 300 miles, and 
the lighter particles have fallen on ships at sea. ; 
The illustrations from photographs in this paper depict travelling sand, and 
others the removal of the surface soil, leaving the hard clay or subsoil exposed 
and the trees in the air. What are called burnt or scalded plains mark the site 
of previous removal by droughty wind-storms—all showing that in this class of 
country these things recur, and must be stopped if permanent settlement is to 
be assured. 
TREE LEFT IN THE AIR BY REASON OF THE Soin Beinc Brown Away. 
The opening passages lay before us what unchecked drift-sand will do; 
leading, then, to a mention of what it has done in Australia in the past and is 
doing at present. We are to consiler whether this devastation shall be allowed 
to proceed, or is to be mastered and the land reclaimed? No one can tell where 
or when it will stop, that is certain. Obstacles in its way cause dunes to form 
until the thing obstructing is surmounted, and then the sand travels on. The 
