1890.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 31 



II. California. 



In previous communications we have enumerated over 70 

 localities of musical sand in the United States. With few ex- 

 ceptions, all of these were on the Atlantic coast, our efforts to 

 secure by correspondence information as to the Pacific coast 

 having been at that time rather unsatisfactory. 



During the earlier part of this summer I examined in person 

 the sea-coast of California at several points, and with the follow- 

 ing results. Beginning at the southern extremity of the State, 

 I first visited 



1. Coronado Beach, San Diego. At this agreeable spot so- 

 norous sand occurs in abundance, though of inferior quality. I 

 first noticed it alongside of Prof. Henry A. Ward's Museum of 

 Natural History, near the Hotel del Coronado, and traced it at 

 intervals for more than 1,500 feet west and the same distance 

 east of this place ; as the beach appears to be uniform in charac- 

 ter, it probably occurs throughout the entire length, about ten 

 miles. The n)usical sand occupies areas of various sizes in a 

 belt six to twenty feet wide above the ordinary high-tide line ; 

 a less sonorous variety, emitting a shriller note, also occurs be- 

 low the high-tide line on the surface only. Under the foot the 

 sand is distinctly sonorous, and a tingling sensation is perceived 

 in the toes when thrust into it forcibly; but these phenomena 

 were less marked at the time of my visit than they are at Eigg, 

 Mancliester, Mass., Eockaway, N. Y., and other places. In a 

 bag a loud soiind is obtained. There are no dunes in the imme- 

 diate vicinity. The areas of loudest intensity evidently change 

 their position from clay to day, or season to season ; a certain area 

 giving notable results one afternoon became moistened by an 

 unusually high tide during the night and was thus deprived of 

 its acoustic properties. 



2. Santa Barbara. Very weak, superficial sonorous sand was 

 detected on the bathing beach near the long pier. The locality 

 is unfavorable, owing to abundance of alg£e and narrowness of 

 the sand -belt. 



3. Redondo Beach, near Los Angeles. No sonorous sand was 

 detected at the time of my visit (July 2d). 



4. Monterey. Affirmative results at two places. On the 

 bathing beach near the much-frequented Hotel del Monte is a 

 tract of loose sand highly sonorous, equal, apparently, in power ta 

 that of Manchester, etc. ; also at Moss Beach on the so-called 

 seventeen-mile drive. The sand here is unusually white and 

 transparent, and is fairly sonorous on the surface. 



5. Pescadero. Sonorous sand has been reported by several 



