74 On a peculiar Noise at Nahuh^ on Mount Sinai. 



tion Jente, soit dans rinclination, soil dans la position de Taxc 

 du globe, tombent cVeiles-memes, (p. 203 ; see also p. 88). 



Mr Conybearc closes his paper with the following passage : 

 " I will also add, that the bones of Cetacea, which might at first 

 sight seem to indicate a cold ocean, either belong to species re- 

 sembling those of the Mediterranean (the Rorqual), or to ex- 

 tinct genera (the Ziphius), or are considered by Cuvier as 

 doubtful." So far, however, is this state of the case from be- 

 ing a correct one, that Baron Cuvier has enumerated ten fossil 

 species : one is like a species native of the Ganges, a second has 

 no close affinity with any known species, while the remaining 

 eight bear a resemblance to the species at present natives of the 

 British seas ! Some of the species referred to by Cuvier as 

 analogous, the Narwal, for example, are not likely, in our day 

 at least, to dwell in the Mediterranean, even under the protec- 

 tion of my opponent. 



I have thus replied to Mr Conybeare's paper, when proba- 

 bly I might have been employing myself otherwise to greater 

 advantage. But the interests of truth seemed to require of me 

 to point out the vast diiference between confident assertion and 

 the deductions of science ; and to attempt to convince my oppo- 

 nent that the physical distribution of animals is " a subject (to 

 reply in his own terms) in which his own information is evident- 

 ly extremely limited ; and yet one without an intimate acquaint- 

 ance with which, it is impossible to conduct to a satisfactory 

 conclusion the discussions upon which he has chosen to enter." 



On a peculiar Noise heard at Nakuhy on Mount Sinai. 



It is known from the reports of travellers, that a low sandstone 

 hill, which runs along the east coast of the bay of Suez, about 

 three hours from Tor in Sinai, gives rise to a remarkable 

 phenomenon. Here, where the ridge is about 150 feet high, 

 there is a steep acclivity named Nakuh, facing the coast, from 

 which there is heard to proceed a striking and very penetra- 

 ting noise. Seetzen, who, in the year 1810, first noticed this 

 circumstance, says that at first it somewhat resembles the tone 

 of an CEolian harp, afterwards that of a hollow top, and lastly 

 was so loud that the earth seemed to shake. To the imagina- 



