THE MYSTERIOUS MUSIC OF PASCAGOULA. 791 



their minds better than their more fortunate brethren, and even 

 outstrip them in excellence of workmanship. Among the boys 

 there is a deaf-mute some sixteen years of age who surpasses all 

 others in the school, a result attained not by superior talent but 

 by close application. Near him another boy of magnificent build 

 and great ability dashes off his work now planing, now carving, 

 with a master hand. On the other side of the room, in the midst 

 of that row of girls neat, even pretty girls there are two most 

 noticeable ; one a brunette, whose quick, observant eye omits 

 nothing while her snow-white hand deftly draws and carefully 

 carves the model. Beside her stands a quiet blonde with blue, 

 thoughtful eyes, carefully examining her model ; and then, as if 

 suddenly discovering some new principle, makes a gesture of joy 

 and resumes her work. At the close of the exercise she takes the 

 finished model to her teacher, and, with a pleasant smile, joyful 

 feelings struggling for expression in her soulful face, says, in the 

 deaf-mute language, " I love this work." 



THE MYSTERIOUS MUSIC OF PASCAGOULA. 



By CHAKLES E. CHIDSEY. 



ANY one examining a map of the Mississippi coast will find 

 indicated thereon, about one hundred miles east of New 

 Orleans, the town of Scranton, or East Pascagoula, situated at the 

 mouth of the Pascagoula River. The waters of this river have 

 become famous in "song and story" for the strange sounds which 

 they give forth as they slowly make their way to the Gulf. For 

 forty years or more a great deal has been written in prose and 

 verse about this mysterious music of Pascagoula, yet no one that 

 I know of has ever attempted to give an accurate description or a 

 plausible explanation of the phenomenon. In the following paper 

 it is my purpose to describe the sounds as I have often heard 

 them, and for an explanation of the mystery to give a theory, 

 long since advanced by Darwin and Rev. Charles Kingsley, to 

 explain the cause of similar music heard on the southern coast of 

 France. 



It was late one evening in September, 1875, that I first heard 

 the mysterious music of Pascagoula. An old fisherman called 

 me from the house where I then was, to come down on the river- 

 bank and "hear the spirits singing under the water." Full of 

 eager curiosity, I readily obeyed the summons, and, if what I heard 

 can not be properly called music, it was certainly mysterious. 

 From out of the waters of the river, apparently some forty feet 



