308 ON THE SENSE OF HEARING IN FISHES. 



be affected by the report of the cannons, which were at 30 

 miles distance. 



When the ' Edgar ' man-of-war was blown up at Spithead 

 in Queen Anne's time, the concussion and crash, which were 

 rather felt than heard at this place, were so horrible that a 

 team at plow ran away with such fury as to tear the share out 

 of the ground, and to drive it through the body of one of the 

 horses. In a dead calm, with the weather-cock pointing to 

 the N.E., we rather felt than heard the guns of the Tower of 

 London, though at fifty miles' distance. 



The following story, which was well authenticated at the 

 time, is much to our purpose. While the French were be- 

 sieging Bergen-op-Zoom in a late war, it happened that a 

 young gentleman of some college in Cambridge was so affected 

 by the loss of a dear friend that he shunned all society, and 

 indulged his melancholy in lonely and sequestered places. One 

 day, as he was lying at length on the grass in some retired spot, 

 he felt, or thought he felt, a concussion like the discharge of 

 ordnance. When he stood up the sensation ceased, but 

 was repeated again as soon as he returned to his former 

 posture. Struck with the oddity of the occurrence, he ran 

 and called some of his acquaintance, who all declared that 

 while they were on their legs they perceived nothing, but that 

 as soon as they were stretched on the turf they plainly felt a 

 shaking like that from the firing of great guns. These young 

 people examined their watches and attended to the time of 

 day, and were surprised to find by the next Dutch mail that 

 it was the very juncture in which the assailants made a most 

 vigorous attack on the town with a shower of bombs and all 

 the thunder of their heaviest artillery. 



(A wonderful effect that a cannonade had in N. America 

 this war by scaring away all the lobsters from a large river 

 where before they remarkably abounded. Mentioned by Cap- 

 tain Duke of Sarson, who was on the spot at the time. To 

 enquire what river. It was at Hell-gate near the Island of 

 New York. Hell-gate is a road or arm of the sea in the 

 mouth of the Hudson river. 



Sound conveyed along a mast in a dock-yard. To examine 



