Sand hill

“ In the ensuing spring the grass mounts anew; is again covered with sand in the winter; and thus a hill or ridge continues to ascend as long as there is a sufficient base to support it, or till the circumscribing sand, being also covered with beach-grass, will no longer yield to the force of the winds.” Sand-hills formed in this way are sometimes one hundred feet high and of every variety of form, like snow-drifts, or Arab tents, and are continually shifting. The grass roots itself very firmly. ”

“ To north, termination of sand hills with stony flats; north-west, unbroken horizon; from west-north-west round towards south-west, a sand hill in the distance; altogether a dreary spot. A heavy timbered creek comes in from south-west into the desert, and appears in the distance to have a tributary from east-south-east; the timber ceases as it comes on to the open desert plain, between four and five miles from this. Quite an unbroken horizon to the west of north-west for some distance. The sand hills that are in view are small and detached. ”

“ Through these hills the wind makes a great galloping, whirling out deep bowl-shape hollows among them, and piling the shifting sand upon their summits. Now and then you will notice a hill with its shoulder knocked off by the wind, and a ton of sand gone no one can tell where. In every storm their contour changes, and yet their general formation is so similar at all times that the change is seldom thought of. ”

“ The day was just breaking, and at the distance of a mile from us we saw the sand–hill I have already had occasion to notice, and at about a quarter of a mile from its base, we were checked by the channel; which, as I rightly conjectured, being stopped in its easterly course by some rising ground, the tongue of land on which the blacks were posted, suddenly turns south, and, striking this sand–hill, immediately enters the sea; and we noticed, in the bight under the rising ground, that the natives had lit a chain of small fires. ”

“ There is a point of land to the south bearing 25 degrees east of south, and the other bearing 25 degrees east of north. Searched about for water, but could find none. Camped in the creek without any. The country at this part is very low, and nearly on a level with the lake. The only sand hill I shall be able to get a view from is not above thirty feet high. At sundown I got on the top of the sand hill, but could see nothing distinctly; must wait until morning. This creek seems to be very little frequented by natives; can see very few tracks and no worleys. ”

“ We start after breakfast for a gap in the hills, and have to wade through the water for a mile or more before we get to the foot of the sand hills. There are rather high table-topped ranges in the distance to the north and south of our course; then to the top of a high red sand hill and across a stony plain, with plenty of feed, thence to another sand hill, from whence there is a perfect sheet of water as far as you could see. Camped on a myall creek, after passing table-topped hills right and left ”

“ On nearing Robat one finds the scenery plainly illustrating the entire evolution of a small sand hill into a high mountain. We have the tiny mounds of sand, only a few inches high, clogged round tamarisk shrubs, then further higher and higher mounds, until they spread out so far that two, three, or more blend together, forming a low bank, and then banks increase to high dunes 40 feet, 50 feet, 100 feet high. These grow higher and higher still ”

“ The hills, if the bare eminences might be so-called, were composed of a red sandy soil producing only salsolae and composite plants, but no grass. This red sand was so loose that the wheels of the carts sank in it at some places to the axles. There were bold undulations where we encamped; all declining towards the hollow connected with the river. There was also a little hill overlooking plains to the north and west. ”

“ Mount Luck is sheer on its south and east sides and slopes gradually to the north-west; it is of desert sandstone, and from its summit, nearly due east, can be seen an imposing flat-topped hill, which I named Mount Douglas, after my old friend and companion, to the north of this hill two quaint little pinnacles stand up above the scrub to a considerable height. ”

“ It is equally common for a hill to appear as quite a respectable mountain when seen from one point, but entirely to disappear from view when seen from the opposite direction, so gentle is the slope.
These ranges, such as they are, occur at intervals of a few miles up to thirty or more, and between them scrub-covered plains, sand-plains, or flat stretches of open forest are found. In the deeper undulations, long chains of dry salt-lakes and samphire-flats are met with, occupying a narrow belt, perhaps one hundred miles in length. ”

“ It is hoped that at some distant time acres of flourishing pine trees will grace many of the hills now so completely dominated by the bunch-grass.
The people of the Sand Hills are a hale and hardy lot. Their life is a rather hard one, even if they take advantage of every comfort possible for them. Many of them were lured by the roseate stories of the early "boomers" and came to the region from the east years ago. ”

“ I noticed a considerable change in the country to the East, over which there spread a forest of desert oak, and near the sandhills thickets of ti-tree. The well seems to be at the head of an ill-defined watercourse, which, lower down, runs between an avenue of bloodwoods. Close to the well are several large ant-heaps, and from the sandhill above it little can be seen; but north of the well one mile distant is a high ridge of sand, from which is visible a prominent square hill, bearing 334° distant eighteen miles ”

“ The population of the Sand Hills is widely scattered. One may ride for twenty or thirty miles in almost any part of the hills and not see more than one or two houses, and frequently in such a ride he may not see a single home or meet a single person. The lack of human associates together with the monotony of the landscape and the slow routine of the lonesome day, the parching winds of summer, the call of the range, and the crimping blasts of winter, has left a telling imprint upon the homesteader and has made him a grizzled, fearless man. ”

“ The sand-hills lift a sculptured mountain edge upon the blue, swells like the bosom of a wave, precipices and hollows like mountain defiles, outlooks, and hiding-places in the valleys, and the surface shall be finely mottled and delicately printed and patterned with lace-work as far as the eye can see. The wind erases it in a night, hollows the hills and fills the hollows; it is gone. The oases disappear; they are like islands sinking in the sea of driving sands; you see their half-sunken trees like ruins buried beneath the wave, still visible in the depths. ”

“ The others fared but little better; it was evident that a crossing could not be effected except at the cost of the horses.
From a sandhill near our camp numerous hills could be seen, the more prominent of which I named. To the West-North-West a table-top hill (Mount Courtenay, after my brother-in-law) standing in front of a prominent tableland; to the northward Mount Lancelot; to the East-South-East a line of cliffs standing above stony rises, at the southern end a bluff point (Point Katharine, after my sister) ”

“ It was made of rock ground up into fine sand by the waves on the shore.
In all the deserts of the world the wind blows the itinerant sand on its far journeys. If the wind is moderate it heaps the sand up into little hills, some of them six hundred feet high, around any obstruction, and then blows the sand up the slanting face of the hill and over the top, where it falls out of the wind on the leeward side. In this way the hill is always traveling. ”

“ South of the plains the Big Sandy joins the Green from the east. South of the Big Sandy a long zone of sand-dunes stretches eastward. The western winds blowing up the valley drift these sands from hill to hill, so that the hills themselves are slowly journeying eastward on the wings of arid gales, and sand tempests may be encountered more terrible than storms of snow or hail. Here the northern boundary of the Plateau Province is found, for mesas and high table-lands are found on either side of the river. ”

“ This hill is close to the high ranges, the Petermann and others, and it would have simplified our journey to have turned to them, where good waters are known to exist, but I desired to see what secrets unknown country might hold, even though it might be only sandhills. ”

“ Now we begin to cross the Sand Hills—a not unexciting performance. The road is a narrow and shifting one, growing daily narrower and of steeper slope, as the winds blow the sand upon it and fill it up. ”

“ A little inland, the beach gives way to dry sand-hills, blown about by the wind, and over-grown by patches of blue-green marram-grass and other sandy seaside weeds. If you lie down on one of these sand-hills, choosing a spot not quite so dirty as its neighbours, you will soon be amused by seeing a curious little comedy going on perpetually around you in every direction. ”

“ Great quantities of the sand thus formed were caught up by the wind and heaped into mounds that finally grew to be large sand dunes extending in long ranges and ridges for many miles over the sandstone beds. Thus were the Sand Hills of the Great American Desert formed in the days preceding the advent of plants or men into the regions now characterized by the billowy hills covered with the bunch-grasses and their associates. ”

“ There are a great many natives' tracks in these sand hills, and plenty of grass.
Wednesday, 7th July, Sand Hills. Heavy dew last night. Started on a bearing of 312 degrees at 9 a.m. At eleven miles the sand hills cease, and stony plain commences. The sand hills were well grassed: also the stony plain. Dip of the country still north-east. We crossed two watercourses—one at this side of the plain, and the other two miles back, broad and shallow. I could see gum-trees on the latter about two miles to the north-east as if it formed itself into a deeper channel. Travelling very heavy. ”

“ The sand-hills are not much unlike snow blown into wreaths, by a strong wind: they are various in their heights and shapes; some being conical and steep, and others running in winding ridges; and the sand is so light, as to be carried about with the wind. ”

“ The journey over the heath and the deep sand was only too quickly accomplished. They stopped before the house of mourning, where they found plenty of guests within and without. Waggon after waggon stood ranged in a row, and horses and oxen went out to crop the scanty pasture. Great sand-hills, like those at home in the North Sea, rose behind the house, and extended far and wide. How had they come here, miles into the interior of the land, and as large and high as those on the coast? ”

“ Your offensive, misplaced costume inspires more pity than the poor man's rags; we feel that you are out of place in the fresh air and that your livery crushes you.
Never had these reflections presented themselves so vividly to Emile's mind as when Galuchet appeared before him, hat in hand, climbing the hill with a painful exertion which caused his coat-tails to flutter in laughable fashion, and pausing to brush away with his handkerchief the traces of frequent falls. ”

“ A range of sand-hills and sand-banks of no great height skirted the shore dividing the sandy beach from the prairie beyond them. Among these sand-hills were a few trees and bushes supporting a precarious existence. Westward of this range of sand-hills which began to rise about a mile from the fort the Indians continued their course and were soon lost to view. ”

“ The presence of nothing but deep sandy valleys and high sand-hills strikes the mind most forcibly. There is something of the sublime mixed with the melancholy; who can contemplate without admiration masses of loose sand, fully four hundred feet high, ready to be tossed about by every breeze, and not shudder with horror at the idea of the unfortunate traveller being entombed in a moment by one of those fatal blasts, which sometimes occur. ”

“ The great expanse of irregular surface soil, with its innumerable obstacles and undulations, was, of course, bound to give curious results in the sand accumulations south of it, where the sand could deposit itself in a more undisturbed fashion and was affected by purely natural causes. Of course, sand hills do not accumulate in the flat desert unless some obstacle—a mere pebble, a tamarisk shrub, a ridge, or a stone, is the primary cause of the accumulation. ”

“ In the immediate neighbourhood of the palm-trees above mentioned (we mean those to the N.E. of Bengazi) are the sand-hills, which form (together with the date-trees) the most remarkable objects on this part of the coast. The occasional mixture of a little manure with the sand, and the decay of vegetable matter, have contributed to produce at the foot of these hills a very excellent soil ”

“ This quaint old French verse, written under one of Holbein’s pictures, is profoundly melancholy. The engraving represents a laborer driving his plow through the middle of a field. Beyond him stretches a vast horizon, dotted with wretched huts; the sun is sinking behind the hill. It is the end of a hard day’s work. The peasant is old, bent, and clothed in rags. He is urging onward a team of four thin and exhausted horses; the plowshare sinks into a stony and ungrateful soil. One being only is active and alert in this scene of toil and sorrow. It is a fantastic creature. ”