There is at present little bent on Coubine. It is chiefly confined to a range of knolls, which forms the southern boundary of the sand, and protects the adjoining cultivated fields from its encroachments; and yet, notwithstanding the terrible calamity the inhabitants of Moray brought upon themselves, by the pulling of bent, this “bad practice” still prevails; this plant being in no other district of country which I have visited so generally employed for thatching cottars’ houses, and other economical purposes.”
In the Outer Hebrides the effects of the sand-flood are also considerable, as shewn in the following notice communicated by my intelligent assistant Mr Macgillivray.
Sand-Flood in the Hebrides, and other parts of Scotland.
“The bottom of the sea, along the whole west coast of the Outer Hebrides, from Barray Head to the Butt of the Lewis, appears to consist of sand. Along the shores of these islands this sand appears here and there, in patches of several miles, separated by intervals of rock, of equal or greater extent. In some places the sandy shores are flat, or very gently sloping, forming what are here called Fords; in others, behind the beach, there is an accumulation of sand to the height of from twenty to sixty feet, formed into hillocks. This sand is constantly drifting; and in several places islands have been formed by the removal of isthmi. The parts immediately behind the beach are also liable to be inundated by the sand; and in this manner most of the islands have suffered very considerable damage. Those of Pabbay and Berneray in Harris may be particularised; in the former of which, a tract of about a mile and a-half long, by half a mile in breadth, has been converted into a desert of drifting sand; and in the latter a large plain, that was formerly noted for its fertility, has been entirely swept away. The sand consists almost entirely of comminuted shells, apparently of the species which are found in the neighbouring seas. It is rather coarse in the grain; but, during high winds, by the rubbing of its particles upon each other, a sort of dust is formed, which, at a distance, resembles smoke, and which, in the Island of Berneray, I have seen driven into the sea, to the distance of upwards of two miles, appearing like a thin white fog. The cure of sand drift has been attempted in these islands in two different ways. Mr Alexander Macleod, surgeon of North Uist, is the inventor of the most efficacious method, which is that of cutting thin square turfs from the neighbouring pasture grounds, and laying them down at intervals of some inches. In the course of a very few years the turfs coalesce, and the stript ground is little the worse; for the roots remaining in it, a new vegetation rapidly springs up. The other method was introduced by Mr Macleod of Harris, and tried extensively upon his estate. It consists of planting small bundles of Arundo arenaria, at distances of about a foot and a-half. These take root, and prevent the drifting to a certain degree. But often vegetation is tardy in establishing itself, and if the turf plan be not considerably more expensive, it seems preferable, because it very effectually prevents the drift, and moreover, produces excellent pasture ground; the former of which indications, the planting system, does not completely effect, and the latter in a very imperfect degree.”
We may add, as this subject is a very interesting one, that further details, in regard to the moving sands of Scotland, will be found, on consulting the Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xx. p. 220. In the Appendix to the Account of the parish of Dyke, vol. xx. p. 228. et seq. there is an account of the Sand-Hills of Mavieston, which overwhelmed the barony of Coubine, as mentioned in Mr Ritchie’s communication. In vol. xix. p. 622. is a notice of the shifting of two hills of the Mavieston Range 500 yards in twenty years. In vol. xxi. p. 207. is a notice of some hundred acres in Duffus’ parish covered three feet deep by drift sand; fourteen inches accumulating in one night. In Neill’s Tour in Orkney and Shetland 1804, it is observed, that, in the neighbourhood of the Castle of Noltland, in Westra, much havoc has been done by the blowing of the sand. No measures are there employed for putting a stop to this kind of devastation. In the 6th volume of the Highland Society’s Transactions will be found a report of the operations carried on in Harris, and alluded to in Mr Macgillivray’s communication. And in Dr Walker’s Account of the Hebrides, and Mr Macdonald’s Work on the Hebrides, farther details may be seen. In Jameson’s Account of the Shetland Islands, and in Shirreff and Fleming’s Reports on these islands, are also facts connected with this devastating agent. We may add, that Dr Oudney, Major Denham, and Captain Clapperton, have added to our knowledge of the blowing sands of the African deserts. The coloured engraving of the sand-hills of the African Desert in Denham, Oudney and Clapperton’s Narrative, is a striking and interesting representation of the form of the moving sand-hills of Africa.
The moving Sands of Africa and their effects are thus described in the Mercure de France for September 1809, by De Luc.
The sands of the Lybian desert, he says, driven by the west winds, have left no lands capable of tillage on any parts of the western banks of the Nile not sheltered by mountains. The encroachment of these sands on soils which were formerly inhabited and cultivated is evidently seen. M. Denon informs us, in the account of his Travels in Lower and Upper Egypt, that summits of the ruins of ancient cities buried under these sands still appear externally; and that, but for a ridge of mountains called the Lybian chain, which borders the left bank of the Nile, and forms, in the parts where it rises, a barrier against the invasion of these sands, the shores of the river, on that side, would long since have ceased to be habitable. Nothing can be more melancholy, says this traveller, than to walk over villages swallowed up by the sand of the desert, to trample under foot their roofs, to strike against the summits of their minarets, to reflect that yonder were cultivated fields, that there grew trees, that here were even the dwellings of men, and that all has vanished.
If, then, our continents were as ancient as has been pretended, no traces of the habitation of men would appear on any part of the western bank of the Nile, which is exposed to this scourge of the sands of the desert. The existence, therefore, of such monuments attests the successive progress of the encroachments of the sand; and those parts of the bank, formerly inhabited, will for ever remain arid and waste. Thus the great population of Egypt, announced by the vast and numerous ruins of its cities, was in great part due to a cause of fertility which no longer exists, and to which sufficient attention has not been given. The sands of the desert were formerly remote from Egypt; the Oases, or habitable spots, still appearing in the midst of the sands, being the remains of the soils formerly extending the whole way to the Nile; but these sands, transported hither by the western winds, have overwhelmed and buried this extensive tract, and doomed to sterility a land which was once remarkable for its fruitfulness.
It is therefore not solely to her revolutions and changes of sovereigns that Egypt owes the loss of her ancient splendour; it is also to her having been thus irrecoverably deprived of a tract of land, by which, before the sands of the desert had covered it, and caused it to disappear, her wants had been abundantly supplied. Now, if we fix our attention on this fact, and reflect on the consequences which would have attended it if thousands, or only some hundreds, of centuries had elapsed since our continents first existed above the level of the sea, does it not evidently appear that all the country on the west of the Nile would have been buried under this sand before the erection of the cities of ancient Egypt, how remote soever that period may be supposed; and that in a country so long afflicted with sterility, no idea would even have been formed of constructing such vast and numerous edifices? When these cities indeed were built, another cause concurred in favouring their prosperity. The navigation of the Red Sea was not then attended with any danger on the coasts; all its ports, now nearly blocked up with reefs of coral, had a safe and easy access; the vessels laden with merchandize and provisions could enter them and depart without risk of being wrecked on these shoals, which have risen since that time, and are still increasing in extent.