July 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCI EN CE-GOSSIP. 



147 



Moulmein steamer to take me onto Mergui, I deter- 

 mined to make the voyage in a native boat. 



The distance from Tavoy to Mergui is about one 

 hundred miles, viz., forty down the Tavoy river to 

 its so-called mouth — really a broad estuary — and 

 thence sixty miles by sea. The greater portion, 

 however, of these sixty miles is shut in from the Bay 

 of Bengal by the northernmost islauds of the 

 Mergui Archipelago, and the sea is comparatively 

 shallow, with a muddy bottom all the way. It is 

 but a short night's run for a steamer, but I was 

 three days and nights performing the distauce. 



"When about forty miles (as I suppose) from 

 Mergui, where the breadth of the sea between the 

 main and the islauds is about teu or twelve miles, 

 on the night of the 10th of February, I was over- 

 taken by a violent storm of thunder and lightning, 

 accompanied by a strong wind and torrents of rain, 

 which lasted nearly all night. 



The wind blew from the south, i. e.,from Mergui ; 

 but, had it been favourable, we could not have ven- 

 tured to hoist a sail on a pitch dark night in a round- 

 bottomed canoe during such a storm. So we "drop- 

 ped the stone" as the Burmese say, or let go the 

 wooden anchor weighted with a stone. Crouched 

 all together (i. e., two Burmese boatmen, my native 

 servant, and myself) under the covered part of the 

 boat for shelter from the driving rain, and " wished 

 for day." 



The storm was followed the next day and the suc- 

 ceeding night by an absolute calm. Not a breath in 

 the sweltering air, not a ripple on the oily sea ! The 

 boat lay motionless, drifting with the sluggish tide, 

 when that was favourable, anchored when it was 

 contrary, for it was too heavy a boat for two men 

 to row. Nothing moved but the sun, and he all too 

 slowly. Not a sound reached the ear, and the haze 

 shut out the sight of the land on either side. 



When night fell again, and the stars shone out 

 bright and clear, the same calm continued, and we 

 lay still and motionless as ever. But with the grow- 

 ing darkness there came a sound upon the ear, — a 

 strange and peculiar sound, though from what quar- 

 ter it came it was difficult to determine, for it was not 

 borne on the air from a distance ; had it been so, I 

 might have fixed upon the direction whence it came, 

 but it was above, below, and around. The air was 

 all sound, and the sound was all of one kind and 

 pitch, — a droning, drowsy sort of sound, and unin- 

 termitting. 



It is difficult to convey in words a correct idea of 

 the sound ; no articulate sound would resemble it. 

 M. de Thoron, as quoted by Mr. Spicer, compared 

 what he heard to the music of an organ listened to 

 outside a church, where, I suppose, all distinction 

 between one note and another would be lost, and 

 a confused vibration would be the result. What I 

 heard might, somewhat fancifully, be so described. 

 He says, the noise was " grave and prolonged," so 



was this. The nearest approach to a true descrip- 

 tion of the sound (as, at least, it seemed to me) 

 which I can give is to imagine a huge drum beaten, 

 at short and regular intervals, a long way off, and 

 the sound coming across the water in sustained 

 waves of varying intensity. The sound, however, 

 can be pretty closely imitated by closing the lips, 

 keeping the teeth apart, and then trying to utter the 

 letter M in the deepest possible tone, and with pro- 

 longed breath; the result will be an inarticulate 

 Hum. 



I could not imagine whence such an unusual 

 sound proceeded, nor could I learn from the boat- 

 men what it was. At that time I was not aware 

 that fish had " voices," or that they could utter 

 sounds of any kind ; I was slow, therefore, to attri- 

 bute the sound to them, although 1 felt sure, after 

 a while, that it arose out of the sea all around me. 



Now, however, I am satisfied (and have been for 

 some time) that that mysterious sound proceeded 

 from the fish in the sea, though from fish of what 

 kind I do not know ; and that M. de Thoron and 

 myself have witnessed the same phenomenon in two 

 very different parts of the world there can, I 

 think, be very little doubt. 



Since the occurrence above related I have not 

 only read that the utterance of sounds by fish is a 

 known fact, but I have had proof of it. There is a 

 little fish in the sea at Amherst, at the mouth of the 

 river Salween, which, on being irritated with a 

 stick, inflates itself to a ridiculous size, and at the 

 same time gives a sort of croak. It has a mouth 

 like that of a turtle, and is, I think (though I know 

 nothing about fish), a species of Tetrodon. There 

 is a species (whether the same or not I cannot say) 

 high up some of our rivers which is a " caution " to 

 bathers, as it can, and does, give a wonderful nip 

 with its little maudibles. The Burmese call it 

 (jna-hoo-den. 



Moulmein, April 20, 1870. C. Parish. 



I HAVE heard these fish on two very different 

 occasions — once off the west coast of Ceylon, 

 in deep sea water ; and once in the Sarumoth river 

 (Borneo), in six fathoms fresh water — in the 

 former case in an iron-built vessel, in the latter 

 ■wooden : so that it appears these fish are not con- 

 fined to such special localities as some of the pub- 

 lished accounts imply ; neither do they limit then- 

 visits to iron vessels, as a writer in the May num- 

 ber of Nature appears to think. 



Off Ceylon we were about one hundred miles 

 north of Colombo — eight leagues from the shore, 

 and in a depth of water exceeding one hundred 

 fathoms — time, shortly after sunset. When the 

 sounds were first heard they might have been taken 

 for faint echoes of music from the distant shore, 

 until, after listening attentively, they were found to 



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