494 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIONS. 



a simple drumming, exactly like a steamer letting off steam, -whicli T attribntecl at 

 first to wind or to water in the caves, but I accept the native explaiiatiou. I have 

 a specimen of the fish, wliich is said to make the noise, but 1 don't believe in its 

 power to do so." — Science (jossip, 1S70, p. 95. 



On this Dr. Giinther remarks to the following elfect : " The musical fish which 

 has been ob.servod by Prof. Kingsley, during his visit to the AVest Indies, is well 

 known under the name of Pdyonias chromis. All writers on Korth American Ichthy- 

 ology speak of the ' Drum,' ' Drummer,' or ' Gnmts,' and speak of the peculiar noise 

 produced by it under water. ... It is a fish like the Maigre, growing to a length 

 of four or five feet, found in American waters north and south of the line. Other 

 allied species are found in the East Indies, where they have also been observed to 

 astonish the sailor by their music. So much is certain. l.st. That the noise is pro- 

 duced by this fish, or similar species, which generally go about in schools or herds. 

 2nd, That the sound is not produced by means of the air-bladder (which is perfectly 

 closed), as some suppose. I believe the sound is produced by the action of the 

 enormous upper and lower pharyngeal teeth, with which three movable plates in the 

 gullet are armed. These teeth have the form of paving stones." 



After this, it may be safely assumed as beyond doubt that a dull noise is made by 

 some species of fish, by the friction of their mandibular or phaiyngeal teeth, and that 

 this noise may be described as a prolonged dnaiing sound, very different from the 

 articulate utterance of any other vertebrates. Other observers have described these 

 sounds in China, Ceylon and Bombay, to mention only some instances : 



Dr. Adams describes the "Drum fish" of Macao as assend)ling evci-y evening 

 round a ship (at anchor?) and keeping up a musical humming till about midnight. 

 The noise rises or falls or suddenly ceases at times as they quit the ship in search of 

 food.— "Cycl. of India." 



Sir Emerson Tennent describes the sound thus : " I distinctly heard the sounds 

 in question. They came up from the water like the gentle thrills of a musical chord 

 or the faint vibrations of a wine glass when its rim is rubbed by a wet finger. It 

 was not one sustained note, but a multitude of tiny sounds, each clear and distinct in 

 itself; the sweetest tieble mingling with the lowest base." — Science Gossi|i, 1870, p. 97. 



Another writer describes similar sounds, heard by him near Salsette (Bombay), 

 and says the fish nearly resembles the European perch {I.e. supra). 



It does not, however, follow that because it is an established fact that fi.sh of the 

 genus Pofionias, and probably others as well, can produce muftied and guttural sounds 

 by the friction of variously disposed dental plates, that therefore all the sounds which 

 have been referred to fish, are correctly so referred. 



Kingsley's comparison of the sound he heard to the letting off steam, suggests 

 another origin which may possibly exist in some places for these mysterious sounds. 

 In various .spots along the Burmese coast, especially in Arakan, but also down so far 

 south certainly as Cape Negi'ais, a considerable evolution of marsh gas takes place, 

 which being g(merally accompanied with a feebly saline spring, gives rise to the 'mud 

 rolciinos,' so called, of that region. These outbursts of mud have no connexion with 

 volcanic energy properly so called, but are dependent on the evolution of marsh gas, 

 whicli is sometimes so copiously discharged as to simulate in a dark night by its 

 ignition, the flames whicli people suppose would accompany an actual volcanic 

 outliurst. Now there is no reason to suppose that this discharge of gas, which in 

 numerous spots in Pegu and Arakan is ceas(dessly ke])t up, is conflmHl to the land : on 

 the eontraiy, it can hardly be doubted that in many spots, submarine points of issue 

 must exist, identical with those v:v. have the means of examining on shore. This 

 being admitted, it seems probable that under favourable conditions, that is, during a 

 perfect calm in both sea and air, a copious and uninterrupted .submarine discharge of 

 gas might give rise to an uninterru])ted and mutHed sound not dissimilar to that 

 described by Mr. Parish and Mr. Kiugsley. I do not venture to say that this is the 

 origin of the sounds in question, but merely nxord what seems to me a possible and 

 unsuspected origin for sucli sounds, as might otherwise be referred to fisli. 



I may in conclusion make a passing allusion to those mysterious sounds called 

 'Barrisal guns.' For an exhaustive account of this phenomenon reference maybe 



