-352 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



2. PHENOMENAL SOUNDS IN THE INTERIOR OF 

 AUSTRALIA— ARE THEY TERRESTRIAL OR 

 ATMOSPHERICAL 1 



By Thomas Gill, I.S.O., Under-Treasurer of South Australia. 



I am somewhat diffident in submitting to the Geographical 

 Section of this Association the following particulars, chiefly 

 obtained from explorers' journals, and personally from explorers 

 and old bushmen, who have traversed the interior of Australia. 

 I do not presume to offer any explanation as to the cause of the 

 phenomena recorded here, but humbly submit the reports and 

 opinions of different travellers on the mysterious sounds which 

 are of frequent occurrence in certain localities, and which bewilder 

 all who have heard them. 



" Phenomenal Sounds " should contain references to " Meteoric 

 Stones " and " Obsidian Bom.bs," but the inclusion of these 

 interesting subjects would make the paper inordinately long. 



A few of the reports herein were collected as far back as 1888, 

 about which time my attention was called to a small book published 

 m Sydney, under the title of A Mother's Offering to her Children 

 hy a Lady long Resident in New South Wales, printed at the 

 Gazette office, Lower George-street, Sydney, and dedicated to 

 Master Reginald Gipps, son of His Excellency Sir George Gipps, 

 29th October, 1841. In the first chapter on " Extraordinary 

 Sounds," the author relates the following: — "A gentleman was 

 telling me some time ago of an extraordinary circumstance which 

 took place at Yass. I will endeavour to repeat it in his own words : — 

 ' On my way to our sheep stations, in the year 1833, I passed a 

 night at the residence of the hospitable Mr. Hamilton Hume, at 

 Yass. While we v/ere engaged in conversation, in the evening, 

 we were surprised by the apparent report of musketry, as if a 

 smart fire of about live-and-twenty guns was kept up, near the 

 house. We hastened out, supposing the Mounted Police had 

 come to the spot and were engaged with bushrangers. The evening 

 was dark, and we could discern nothing, though the firing still 

 continued; but it now appeared ascending into the air, higher and 

 higher, till it gradually ceased, as if those who vv'ere firing had 

 ascended as they fired their muskets. We remained a short time 

 listening with awe; wondering what this strange phenomena could 

 portend. All was still. After expressing our astonishment, we 

 withdrew within the doorway, when Mr. Hume related a similar 

 phenomenon which had occurred during an exploring journey 

 which he took with Captain Sturt.' " 



The first record I have found dealing with this subject is by 

 Captain Sturt, when he was exploring on the Darling, in 1829, as 

 follows: — "About 3 p.m., on the 7th February, Mr. Hume and 



