i« particular Districts. 261 



which spontaneously, at certain times, emitted sounds much re- 

 sembling those attributed to the colossal statue of Memnon, a 

 circumstance well known to the natives, who, however, were at 

 a loss for an explanation of the cause. 



This distinguished traveller says, in the 4th volume of his 

 Personal Narrative, that, according to credible witnesses, sub- 

 terraneous sounds, like those of an organ, are heard towards 

 sunrise, by those who sleep upon the granite rocks on the banks 

 of the Oroonoko. He adds, that MM. Jomard, JoUois, and 

 Devilliers heard, at sunrise, in a monument of granite, placed 

 at the centre of the spot on which the palace of Karnak stands, 

 a noise resembling the breaking of a string *. 



The reflective powers of surfaces, whether inclined or hori- 

 zontal, and the transmitting capacity of the air, afford data for 

 every variety of theory, in the equally unaccountable and singu- 

 lar instances on record ; and I believe that many of your read- 

 ers, at all in the habit of paying attention to the numberless 

 phenomena presenting themselves, will bear testimony to having 

 heard strange sounds, whence and wherefore they knew not. 

 He who has been called upon to keep watch during the lone 

 hours and stillness of a calm night, will occasionally hear low 

 murmurings rising and falling on the ear, for which he would 

 find it difficult to account on any other theory than vibrations 

 of air acting in some particular manner on intervening surfaces 

 or projections. 



It may be urged, and it is perfectly just, that the intensity 

 of sound is very considerably increased during the night, which 

 has been ascribed by Humboldt to the presence of the sun 

 acting on the propagation and intensity of sounds, by opposing 

 them with currents of air of different density, and partial un- 

 dulations of the atmosphere, caused by unequally heating dif- 

 ferent parts of the earth. In these cases, the vibrations of sound 



• Analogous, and corroborative in some degree of these facts, is the fol- 

 lowing beautiful, though somewhat fanciful, passage of Madame de Stael's : 

 " Et Ton meme que sur les cotes de I'Asie, ou Tatmosjihere est plus pur, on 

 entend quelquefois le .soir une harmonie plaintive et douce, que la nature 

 semble adresser a I'homme, a fin de lui apprendre qu'elle respire, qu'elle 

 aime, ct qu'elle aouft're." 



4 



