28 TKANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 27,. 



October 27tli, 1890. 



Stated Meeting. 



The President, Dk, Newberry, in the chair. 



About seventy -five persons present. 



Minutes of October 20th were read and approved. 



Dr. Newberry exhibited a fine specimen of turquoise from 

 Mineral Park, Arizona. 



The following paper was read : 



RESEARCHES ON MUSICAL SAND IN THE HAWAIIAN" ISLANDS 



AND IN CALIFORNIA. 



BY DR. H. CARRINGTON BOLTON. 



(Abstract.) 

 I. Kauai and Niihau. 



About a year ago I presented to the Academy some account 

 of my study of sonorous sand in the Peninsula of Sinai. That 

 communication was in continuation of researches begun jointly 

 with Dr. Alexis A. Julien in 1882, the results of which liave 

 been laid before you on several occasions (May 14th, 1883; 

 March 10th. 1884; April 28th, 1884; October lotli, 1888; May 

 13th, 1889; October 21st, 1889). We have shown that the phe- 

 nomenon of musical sand has been generally neglected by scien- 

 tists, although it is of a marked character, and that the sand is 

 widely distributed in nature, occurring on fresh-water lakes, 

 on sea-beaches, and in arid regions. 



In the spring of this year I visited the so-called " Barking 

 Sands" of the Hawaiian Islands, already mentioned in the 

 works of several travellers (Bates, Frink, Bird, Nordhoff, and 

 others). As a natural curiosity the place has a world-wide 

 fame, but the printed accounts are rather meagre in detail, and 

 show their authors to have been unacquainted with similar phe- 

 nomena elsewhere. 



On the southwest coast of Kauai, in the district of Mana^ 

 sand-dunes attaining a height of over 100 feet extend for a mile 

 or more nearly parallel to the sea, and covering hundreds of 

 acres with the water-worn and wind-blown fragments of shells 

 and coral. The dunes are terminated on the west by bold cliffs 

 {Pali) whose base is washed by the sea; at the east end the 

 range terminates in a dune more symmetrical in shajie than the 



