THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 115 



Hugh Miller, the well-known Scotch geologist, recorded a 

 similar occurrence of musical sand in the Island of Eigg, Inner 

 Hebrides, and he noted that it was heard at its best when there 

 was a damp semi-coherent stratum of sand 3 or 4 inches beneath. 

 Other well-known localities for its occurrence are those of Jebel 

 Nakous, or the Mountain of the Bell, in Arabia, where the sand 

 slides down a declivity and produces a sound like that of the 

 jeolian harp ; Reg Rawan, near Cabul ; and at Bournemouth in 

 England. 



Our president has already recorded its occurrence in Victoria 

 (see Naturalist, vol. ix., 1892, p. 39) at Phillip Island, and he has 

 stated that the sound could be detected at 40 paces — a distance 

 which agrees very nearly with that arrived at by Hugh Miller in 

 the Island of Eigg. 



The sand at Shoreham was most musical on the dry portion, 

 but the sound was also slightly noticeable on the damp surface, 

 nearer the receding tide. I brought away a small sample of the 

 musical sand from Shoreham in order that those interested may 

 judge of this peculiar phenomenon for themselves. 



Several theories have been suggested to explain this curious 

 property in certain sands, one by Carus Wilson being that the 

 sound is due to evenness and cleanness of grain. 



Under the microscope the musical sand of Shoreham is seen to 

 consist principally of quartz grains. Many other adventitious 

 particles are present, such as calcareous organic fragments, 

 corallines, Echini spines, and shell fragments, but these are in 

 very small proportion. 



The present sample does not support Carus Wilson's theory 

 regarding the evenness of grain, for the quartz granules are of 

 many different sizes, varying from .16 to 2 mm. in diameter, the 

 limit ratio being about i to 12. Further, the degree of rounding 

 in the grams is not an essential factor in this instance, since some 

 of the particles are sharply angular and others are wind-polished, 

 and between which every gradation may be found. The quartz 

 granules are presumably derived, as is the sand of the dunes, from 

 the gritty Tertiary strata covering a large portion of the Promon- 

 tory, which in turn have been supplied with material from the 

 decomposition of the granite, such as that of Phillip Island opposite. 

 Particles of secondary quartz are present, but are few and far 

 between ; chalcedonic and jaspery particles are, however, not 

 unconmion. — F. Chapman. 



In connection with the Melbourne session of the Australasian 

 Ornithologists' Union, several of the members and their friends 

 spent the last week of November at the Mutton-bird rookeries at 

 Phillip Island, in order to see the wonderful sight of the arrival of 

 the birds, and otherwise study their habits. 



