Shells from the river are carried

TCD MS 10515 folio 103 verso

TCD MS 10515 folio 103 verso

the sand is more friable and granular, it is swept about to a limited extent by the wind, and binds itself to the formation of small hillocks; but there was a complete absence of anything in the nature of the great rolling waves of sand that sweep relentlessly over the deserts in the centre of the continent.
Though the unfathomed mass of this alluvium* at the slowly advancing delta of a sluggish river, yet annual additions are now made to it within the area affected by the floods. The deluge from the swollen river creeps wide inland and, as it recedes, leaves its fine layer of sediment on the surface of the desert. Shells from the river are carried with the inundating waters. They are deposited with the fine silt, and left high and dry as the waters retire. The

* has been mainly deposited