Word: quicksands
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...sand, an entirely different substance, supports weight quite well when undisturbed, but when piles are driven into it the whole mass suddenly liquefies and the piles sink. Quicksand is thus merely the upward flow of water through sand. Dry sand acts even more strangely; when all the air is pumped out, it becomes as hard as rock. This fact explains why foundations set on deep piles are usually safe...
When the South finally put secession to the proof, it found there was no stopping the dangerous principle; sectionalism was one of the causes of the South's defeat. Says Author Adams: "The united Confederacy was built upon the quicksand of shifting local loyalties." In 180 pages Adams retells, with balanced impartiality, the story of the Civil War, concludes: "The essence of our national tragedy has been that the section of our new country in which the humane view and way of life developed first should . . . have been forced ... to expend its intellectual energies against the trend...
...succeeds, after his antagonists have been able to commit only two murders, in outwitting them. Intermittently, caught in the whirlpool of tropical action, Miss Heather Angel and a recent British import named Douglas Walton add standard Hollywood romance to the picture. A motorboat chase and an expedition through a quicksand swamp form the principal excitements of the film, but it is the acting of Mr. Bruce and his cohorts which raises "Murder in Trinidad" above other thrillers...
...Central America, Mexico, Tschiffely & beasts plowed through jungles, swamps, deserts, mountain passes, across swinging bridges, in fair & foul weather. Once Tschiffely, on a dark night, tried to drive his comrades over a precipice; their horse sense saved him. Once Gato refused to budge; Tschiffely found he was facing a quicksand. Tschiffely refuses to manufacture adventures, but admits that once he had to shoot in self-defense. He often had passport trouble and was occasionally taken for a spy, but by the time he reached Mexico City his fame had preceded him: he was given the honor of opening a bullfight...
Once the party started to map a mirage. Another time they saw marmots pair off, stand "erect on their hind legs, grasping each other with their front paws, and dance slowly about exactly as though they were waltzing." Once a car partially sank in quicksand. Another time, in an old quicksand bed they found the four legs of a baluchitherium, largest animal that ever lived. Each leg was as big around as a fat man. A speck of white in the prevailing red of the desert sufficed to indicate a partially exposed fossil. After a little practice the men spotted...