Sand

“ The golden sand under my feet—the diamond-shaped waves caused by the angular breezes—the arctic sun pouring down its bright, warm rays from just above the peaks of Greenland's mountains, and reflected from the sparkling waters around me, will never be forgotten. ”

“ A great plain of sand stretches around the Mont for miles every way—of sand or sea, for the water covers it at flood-tides, beating up against the foot of the granite rocks and the granite walls of the ramparts. ”

“ On windy autumn days, when the sand is still dry and alive, and westerly gusts and currents take on a genuine violence, the loose sand behind the dune is whirled up by the wind and poured eastward through this funnel. ”

“ The wrinkled sand, ever shifting yet ever the same, has the same old familiar patches of vari-coloured weeds and shining rocks along its level expanse: and the thunder-chant of the sea which echoes round the world, eternal yet ever new, is rolling up to heaven. ”

“ THE MERMAIDS
SAND, sand; hills of sand;
And the wind where nothing is
Green and sweet of the land;
No grass, no trees,
No bird, no butterfly,
But hills, hills of sand,
And a burning sky. ”

“ The sands, thy heart, alike have lost
The name I trusted to their care;
And passing waves, and worldly thoughts,
Effaced what once was written there.
Woe, for the false sands! and worse woe,
That thou art falsest of the twain! ”

“ The sand is furrowed by little rivulets from the abandoned pools above, and at its edge long low waves ripple over it, flattening themselves out in thin sheets which invade one another with infinitely complex, graceful curves. ”

“ Out of the northeast they roll over gray-green leagues of cold sea, and as they bite deep into the sand of the shore behind Peaked Hill Bar, and drag it and all that is on it down into their maw and hurl it all back again, beating it on the beach and snatching it and beating it again, it roars inarticulate threats that make the onlooker draw back glad of a space of summer-dried sand between him and its depths. ”

“ It is one prodigious expanse of red sand, and sandstone rock, of the granulations of which the red sand consists. It is, in truth, an empire of sand which seems to defy every exertion of human power or industry, although it is interspersed with various islands, and fertile and cultivated spots of different sizes, where water collects in springs or pools, around which vegetation springs up. These places, which present a delightful contrast to the surrounding sterility, and cheer the eye of the weary traveler, are called oases. ”

“ When the winds waken, and lift and winnow the immensity of sand, the air itself is a dim sand-air, and dim looming through it, the wonderfullest uncertain colonnades of sand-pillars whirl from this side and from that, like so many spinning dervishes, of a hundred feet of stature, and dance their huge Desert waltz there. ”

“ At last the columns join at the top and form, perhaps three thousand feet above the earth, a gigantic cloud of yellow sand which obliterates not only the horizon but even the midday sun. These sand-spouts are the terror of travellers. ”

“ Sand-dunes are not only blown away piecemeal, but the winds pour upon their flanks a ceaseless shower of sand, and, as the frail masonry gives way, the falling grains are caught and carried on by the gale. ”

“ The sea licks the white sand with gentle murmurs and the slight breeze scarcely ripples the blue surface, the constant variations, which the golden sands and glittering sea, the open valleys and green hills present, adding to the charm and freshness of the journey. ”

“ The eye, however, has perceived no change; the immense beach is smooth and tranquil, all the sand has the same aspect, nothing distinguishes the soil that is solid from that which is not solid; the joyous little cloud of sand-lice continues to leap tumultuously under the feet of the passer-by. ”

“ If you but face them bravely, lost in a barren land,
Never will they betray you, the sky and the sea and sand.
Blue burns the sky above me, red the sand at my feet,
Near and far on the sandhills shimmers the living heat;
Hill after hill I conquer, changing yet still the same,
Still flows the sand together and covers the way I came.
Stretched in a warm sand-hollow late in the afternoon
Watch I the wild duck flying back to the long lagoon;
Black on an amber sunset passes the last of the flight—
Over the Coorong sandhills quiver the pinions of night. ”

“ MARGARET VANDEGRIFT America, 1845- The Sandman
The rosy clouds float overhead,
The sun is going down;
And now the sandman's gentle tread
Comes stealing through the town.
"White sand, white sand," he softly cries, 5
And as he shakes his hand,
Straightway there lies on babies' eyes
His gift of shining sand.
Blue eyes, gray eyes, black eyes, and brown,
As shuts the rose, they softly close, when he goes through the town,10
From sunny beaches far away—
Yes, in another land—
He gathers up at break of day
His store of shining sand. ”

“ On the one side, far as the eye can reach, and for hundreds of miles beyond, a desert of glistening sand is spread before us, for the most part level and unbroken, but occasionally interrupted by billow-like undulations, resembling the ground swell at sea. ”

“ The sand raised from the beach was formed into sand-whirlwinds, which reached to a great altitude, and, breaking, descended with the torrents of rain invading every place; the houses themselves, even those most solidly built, trembled from the impetuous violence of the wind, and shook everything contained in them. ”

“ On those shores and those sandstones, as well as on the rocks of other formations, now raised in many parts of the world thousands of feet above the level of the sea, we find on slabs of hardened stone—clearly and definitely impressed—footprints, ripple markings, worm-borings, rain-drops, and sun-dried cracks refilled with sand,—carrying us back to a time when huge reptiles or great birds haunted in crowds the margins of seas or lakes, and there lived and died, leaving in memoriam their footprints on the sands. ”

“ Thousands upon thousands of holes covered the earth, where men emerged and disappeared like ants, each bearing a bag of sand which he either threw on a wheelbarrow or slung over his shoulder, and then carried forward, running nimbly along the thin paths among a multitude of holes, till he reached the little creek where he delivered the sand to one of the men who stood shoulder to shoulder, in long rows, for miles on either bank, all washing the sand and clay into the shallow current, whose waters were turned to a tint of dirty yellow. ”

“ Thus this common sand, when brought under certain influences, displays its relationships to different parts of creation; and especially, as it is fluctuating and unsteady, light, and blown about by every gust of wind, exactly like the course of human life, so does it bear a near affinity to human beings, and discovers, when compelled, their fate and circumstances! ”

“ He is like the children on the sands by the seashore; they gather up a handful of sand, then open their little fingers and let it slip through and back again to the sands of the sea and their little hands are empty. ”

“ And call the cattle home
Across the sands of Dee;"
The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
And all alone went she.
The western tide crept up along the sand,
And o'er and o'er the sand,
And round and round the sand. ”

“ Know then that toward the midst of the wilderness there is a great circle of sand that never is still, but heaves up and down in waves and breakers like the waves of Ocean, and this compass of sandy sea is about ten miles in breadth, so that none can pass through it save by a miracle and art magik. ”

“ I followed the narrow line of sand, sometimes having to make a detour inland to get around a rocky point of land which jutted out into the water, or to avoid a dagger-like plant the spike-like leaves of which were armed with spines as sharp as needles. ”

“ The long, undulating lines of ridged sand inspire thoughts of hopeless melancholy. The sparse vegetation, which in its struggle for life pathetically seizes and holds the partially fertile spots among these ever-shifting masses, has the appearance of broken submission. The wildly tangled {20}roots—derelicts of the sands—which have been deserted and left to bleach in the sun by the slow movement of the great hills, emphasize the feeling of isolation. ”

“ The lead was kept going, every half hour or so, all night. And, towards sunrise, they got twenty fathoms, and the lead brought up grains of black sand and grains of yellow sand, and they put away the lead line. ”

“ Like conical-shaped clouds, the points of which descend to the earth, the sand rises through the rarefied air on the electrically-charged centre of the whirling current, resembling the loud water-spout, dreaded by the experienced mariner. ”

“ And in a sense they are waves, formed of sand which the ocean brings out of its depths and exposes at low water, to be swept up by the everlasting winds and heaped in hills along the sea-front; and no sooner are the hills built than the wind unbuilds them again, carrying the yellow dust further inland to build other hills and yet others, burying the green farm-lands and houses and entire villages in their desolating progress. ”

“ The one thing my youngsters insist on is sand—wet sand with pools, for amateur canal-engineering; dry sand for houses and forts, and Canutish, wave-repelling castles. Sand, and plenty of it, is their one demand, and no holiday is complete without it. ”

“ It was one of those tearing windstorms, that often come in summer, seemingly bent on raising everything on earth heavenward except the sand—that always sought refuge under eyelids—the average grain of sand would rather get in a girl's eye than help to make up a reputable mountain. ”

“ To see nothing but grey sand, ever sand—not a bird or a wild beast—tawny, weather-worn rocks—a few lofty ahuehuelts—a species of cedar, with long bare branches, covered with a greyish moss, hanging in heavy festoons—had nothing very amusing about it. ”

“ This shrinking of summer’s vegetation, this uncovering of the body of the dune, has permitted the winter gales to reach the sand, and all up and down the great wall, on the tops of the dunes, the surface sand is moving. ”

“ The sand is almost as fine as flour, and contains no admixture of dust The foot sinks only an inch or two in walking over it; children roll about on it and down its slopes, and, rising, shake themselves till their clothing loses every trace of sand. ”

“ Alone I walked the ocean strand;
A pearly shell was in my hand:
I stooped, and wrote upon the sand
My name—the year—the day.
As onward from the spot I passed,
One lingering look behind I cast:
A wave came rolling high and fast,
And washed my lines away. ”

“ A single drop of water, constantly falling, will hollow out a stone. In these millions of years the water has swept away rocks here, and formed new land by the accumulation of sand there. In these millions of years the sand has been compressed into the gigantic masses that tower above us to-day as sandstone mountains; they are formed of sand that was originally laid like mud, layer by layer, on the floor of the ocean. ”

“ He uplifts his hands, utters furious groans, clenches his nails on the beach, tries to cling fast to that ashes, supports himself on his elbows in order to raise himself from that soft sheath, and sobs frantically; the sand mounts higher. The sand has reached his shoulders, the sand reaches to his throat ”

“ By the word sand I always understand vitrifiable sand; and not only comprehend under this denomination the fine sand which produces freestone, and which I look upon as powdered glass, or rather pumice stone, but also the sand which proceeds from the freestone destroyed by friction, and also the larger sand, as small gravel, which proceeds from the granate and rock-stone, and is sharp, angular, red, and commonly found in the bed of rivers or rivulets that derive their waters immediately from the higher mountains, or hills composed of stone or granate. ”

“ Sand is the material which enters, perhaps in greatest quantity, the composition of our land. But sand, in general, is no other than small fragments of hard and solid bodies, worn or rounded more or less by attrition; consequently, the same natural history of the earth, which is investigated from the masses of gravel, is also applicable to those masses of sand which we find forming so large a portion of our present land throughout all the earth16. ”

“ And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand. ”

“ West and East Girdlers, Margate Sands, Long Sands, Sunk Sands, Goodwin Sands—it seems to be all sand; whilst the soundings are more alarming still—eleven fathoms here, and close against it, one fathom—the English of which is blue lights, rockets, hovellers, lifeboats, and Board-of-Trade inquiries. ”

“ Sand consists of grains of quartz or flint, the individual particles of which are large enough to be seen with the unaided eye or readily felt as gritty grains when rubbed between the finger and thumb. When a little soil is shaken up with water in a tumbler the sand particles rapidly fall to the bottom and form a layer which resembles ordinary sand of the seashore or river banks. ”

“ Year by year that rustling strip of green land grows narrower; the sand spreads and sinks, shuddering and wrinkling like a living brown skin; and the last standing corpses of the oaks, ever clinging [Pg 323] with naked, dead feet to the sliding beach lean more and more out of the perpendicular. As the sands subside, the stumps appear to creep ”

“ You will find most of the rocks of our hills and valleys to have been originally laid down in the sea, where they were formed out of sand and mud dropped on the sea floor, just as sand and mud are carried out to sea and laid down there now. ”

“ On one side the wind robs these of every covering, driving the fine sand uninterruptedly over their summits, completely enveloping them in a veil in times of storm, and leaving no particle of sand at rest until it has been blown across the ridge. ”