1.   A gill-equipped trader, he travels the desolate expanses between the few floating outposts of humanity on a huge, ingeniously rigged trimaran.

2.   From that vantage point, all that is apparent is a desolate expanse, one that has often been home to strange and not-always-pleasant occurences.

3.   Just a desolate expanse of sagebrush.

4.   The discovery marked the first real victory for recovery crews since the aircraft nosedived into a desolate expanse of the Florida Everglades two days ago.

5.   With computerized go-aheads, hundreds of underground nuclear blasts rocked the test site in Nevada, a desolate expanse of desert bigger than Rhode Island.