PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 355 



be similar to that which makes the sand musical at Eigg (see Hugh 

 Miller's Cruise of the Betsy, chapter IV) ; the sonorous moving 

 sand at Reg Rawan, Cabul; and the thundering sand of Jabel 

 Nablous,^ in Arabia Petraea ? In the latter case, the mere falling 

 of tlie sand on the rock beneath made a sound like distant thunder 

 and caused the rocks to vibrate. The ultimate cause is quite 

 unexplained." 



At Nakous, near the shore of the Red Sea, there are heard, at 

 intervals, underground sounds resembling the tinkling of a bell. 

 This phenomenon is probably due to some sort of suppressed vol- 

 canic agency. 



T addressed Mr. W. H. Tietkens, who had accompanied Mr. 

 Ernest Giles through Central Australia, and later revisited Central 

 Australia, when he named Lake Macdonald, and v/ho had also 

 travelled in the Eucla district, with a view of obtaining his experi- 

 ence and ideas on this subject, to which he replied: — "I am 

 afraid I cannot help you with very much material for your paper, 

 except giving my own impressions and recollections of Fort 

 Mueller. In the Cavenagh Range there exist large masses of iron 

 ore carrying a high percentage of metal, and in no part of the 

 Continent have I seen such enormous masses of highly magnetic 

 ore. The Cavenagh Range may be said to form a low detached 

 series of bald hills, the timber becoming especially scarce towards 

 the Vvcstern end, and where the masses of ore are to be seen, 

 though I may say similar were met with upon one occasion at the 

 Bell-Metal Rock ot Giles, which, upon referring to Giles' map, 

 will be seen to be some considerable distance to the eastward. The 

 diary of Mr. Gosse does not give us any special remarks upon this 

 range, although he camped near Fort Mueller for some weeks. Wo 

 were bound up as rigidly as in any Arctic ship in winter ice for 

 some months at this spot, nor did we get- away from there until 

 the Rav/linson was discovered. Since the time of Sturt, at the 

 Depot Glen, in 1844, no travellers were ever so securely penned in 

 as we were ; the recollections of the place are somewhat vivid, for 

 it was necessarily a critical time. Very distant shocks of earth- 

 quake were noticed (I think in November) accompanied by 

 strangely uncomfortable earth rumblings, large masses of the loose 

 iron ore of which the adjacent hills were composed were sent with 

 a tremendous noise into the little valley or gully below, and 

 through which a little ti-tree creek ran (there is no gum timber 

 there) ; this little watercourse was perfectly fresh, clear, and 

 beautiful water, the strange peculiarity being its intermittent 

 character, as regular as the tides of the ocean, its flow being at 

 night and its ebb during the day, the little rock basin at the camp 



1 Also named " Jebel Nagus." 

 M 2 



