Of course, not all beaches are purely quartz sand, and not all quartz sand ends up on beaches.

当然，并不是所有的海滩都是纯粹的石英砂，也不是所有的石英砂最终都会出现在海滩上。

And then it's only a matter of time — sometimes a very long time — before the quartz sand gets whisked away by streams and rivers and carried to the sea.

然后，石英砂被溪流和河流带走，并被带到海里，这只是时间问题，有时是很长的时间。

Every valley was filled with air like that of a kiln, and the clean quartz sand of the winter water-courses, which formed summer paths, had undergone a species of incineration since the drought had set in.

每一个山谷，弥漫着窖房一样的热气，自从干旱开始以来，冬天是河、夏天成路的河道里，原本被冲洗干净的石英沙子，仿佛经历了一番焚化。