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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



from its shelving bank, rose a roaring, murmuring sound, which 

 gradually increased in strength and volume, until it had reached 

 its height, when it as slowly descended. It may be represented as 

 follows : 



Diapason . 







Crescendo. 



Diminuendo. 



It never advanced or receded, but seemed always in the 

 same spot ; and, though I remained there some time, it never 

 ceased, but continued to rise and .fall in the manner that I have 

 indicated above. The reader may obtain a better idea of the mu- 

 sic if he will place his ear against a telegraph-pole, the timber of 

 which, acting as a sounding-board for the wires that are played 

 upon by the wind, gives forth a strange, tremulous sound, that 

 is an exact counterpart of the " music of Pascagoula " with this 

 difference, however, that whereas the music of the wires is very 

 wavering and tremulous, that of the water rises and falls with a 

 steady swell. 



One evening in October, some years after the event above 

 mentioned, while seated on an old wharf on the banks of the Pas- 

 cagoula River, idly watching the ever varying and shifting hues 

 of the setting sun, pointing with my finger across the wide extent 

 of marsh that stretched before me to a squall that was raging in 

 the Gulf, I remarked to my companion how distinctly we could 

 hear the roar of the wind, though the storm was so far off. " That," 

 she replied, " is not the storm that you hear, but the mysterious 

 music." Approaching the edge of the wharf upon which we sat, 

 and leaning over, I soon ascertained the truth of her words, for 

 from out of the water came a roaring, rushing sound like that of 

 a mighty wind, that may be represented thus : 



The sound, however, was not caused by the wind passing be- 

 tween the wharf and the water, as there was very little breeze 

 where we were, and, though I visited the spot some time after- 

 ward, it abated but little. I have been frequently told by fisher- 

 men that, when fishing at night on the waters of the Pascagoula, 

 should they hear the mysterious music and make an unusual 

 sound by splashing the water with an oar, or jumping overboard, 



