Coin' Fishin' * * * * * 79 



and Stephen Forbes of the Illinois State Natural History Survey, had an 

 experience which Dr. Forbes described as follows : 



"Here we first heard, while out on the lake in the bright still morn 

 ing, the mysterious aerial sound for which this region is noted. It put 

 me in mind of the vibrating clang of a harp lightly and rapidly touched 

 high up above the tree tops, or the sound of many telegraph wires swing 

 ing regularly and rapidly in the wind, or, more rarely, of faintly heard 

 voices answering each other overhead. 



"It begins softly in the remote distance, draws rapidly near with 

 louder and louder throbs of sound, and dies away in the opposite dis 

 tance; or it may seem to wander irregularly about, the whole passage 

 lasting from a few seconds to half a minute or more. 



"It is usually noticed on still, bright mornings not long after sunrise, 

 and it is always louder at this time of day ; but I heard it clearly, though 

 faintly, once at noon when a stiff breeze was blowing. 



"No scientific explanation of this really bewitching phenomenon has 

 ever been published, although it has been several times referred to by 

 travelers, who have ventured various crude guesses at its cause, varying 

 from that commonest catch-all of the ignorant, 'electricity/ to the whis 

 tling of the wings of ducks and the noise of the 'steamboat geyser/ It 

 seems to me to belong to the class of aerial echoes, but even on that sup 

 position I cannot account for the origin of the sound." 



In 1919 Dr. Hugh M. Smith, then United States Commissioner of 

 Fisheries, had a series of adventures on Shoshone Lake with these 

 strange sounds. The following is a part of his report on these experi 

 ences : 



"The surface of the lake was glassy, the air was still, a faint haze 

 overhung the water, the sky was cloudless, and the lake for a consider 

 able distance out was in the shadow of heavily timbered hills. The canoe 

 had barely gotten under way and was not more than twenty meters from 

 the shore when there suddenly arose a musical sound of rare sweetness, 

 rich timbre, and full volume, whose effect was increased by the noise 

 less surroundings. The sound appeared to come from directly overhead, 

 and both of us at the same moment instinctively glanced upward ; each 

 afterward asserted that so great was his astonishment that he was almost 

 prepared to see a pipe organ suspended in mid-air. The sound, by the 

 most perfect graduation, increased in volume and pitch, reaching its 

 climax a few seconds after the paddling of the canoe was involuntarily 

 suspended ; and then, rapidly growing fainter and diminishing in pitch, 

 it seemed to pass away toward the south. The sound lasted ten to fifteen 

 seconds and was subsequently adjudged to range in pitch approximately 

 from a little below center C to a little above tenor C of the pianoforte, 

 the tones blending in the most perfect chromatic scale." 



