NUMBER XXIV 

 COUNTRY SOUNDS 



IN temperate countries, where violent changes are 

 rare, most of the sounds in the world of things, 

 apart from living creatures, are subdued. There 

 is, indeed, the roll of the thunder, the battery of the 

 sea, the howling of the storm, the crash of avalanche 

 and landslip, the roar and cannonading of the forest 

 fire, the groaning of the earthquake, and the boom- 

 ing of the cataract, but all these are more or less 

 unusual. What we are more accustomed to, what 

 we have come to love, are gentler, subtler sounds 

 with some music in them the sob of the sea, the 

 sough of the wind in the wood, the song of the 

 purling brook, the crickle -crackle of the brittle 

 withered grass and shrivelling herbage, the sigh with 

 which the parched ground receives the heavy rain, 

 and the little sound that the breeze makes when it 

 rings the sun-dried bluebells by the wayside, or 

 causes the aspen leaves to quiver, or sets the heather 

 tinkling, or gives a whisper of gossip to the bul- 

 rushes beside the lake. 



For many millions of years the only sounds upon 

 the earth were those made by things without life ; 

 it was not until living creatures had been cradled 

 and fostered for many ages that they found voice. 



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