The Natural History of Selborne 295 



choice of distance ; but the path, by mere contingency, happens to 

 be the lucky, the identical spot, because the ground rises or falls so 

 immediately, if the speaker either retires or advances, that his mouth 

 would at once be above or below the object. 



We measured this polysyllabical echo with great exactness, and 

 found the distance to fall very short of Dr. Plot's rule for distinct 

 articulation ; for the Doctor, in his " History of Oxfordshire," allows 

 a hundred and twenty feet for the return of each syllable distinctly ; 

 hence this echo, which gives ten distinct syllables, ought to measure 

 four hundred yards, or one hundred and twenty feet to each syllable ; 

 whereas our distance is only two hundred and fifty-eight yards, or 

 near seventy-five feet to each syllable. Thus our measure falls short 

 of the Doctor's, as five to eight ; but then it must be acknowledged 

 that this candid philosopher was convinced afterwards, that some 

 latitude must be admitted of in the distance of echoes according to 

 time and place. 



When experiments of this sort are making, it should always be 

 remembered that weather and the time of day have a vast influence 

 on an echo ; for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens and clogs the 

 sound, and hot sunshine renders the air thin and weak, and deprives 

 it of all its springiness, and a ruffling wind quite defeats the whole. 

 In a still, clear, dewy evening the air is most elastic ; and perhaps 

 the later the hour the more so. 



Echo has always been so amusing to the imagination, that the 

 poets have personified her ; and in their hands she has been the 

 occasion of many a beautiful fiction. Nor need the gravest man 

 be ashamed to appear taken with such a phenomenon, since it may 

 become the subject of philosophical or mathematical inquiries. 



One should have imagined that echoes, if not entertaining, must 

 at least have been harmless and inoffensive ; yet, Virgil advances a 

 strange notion, that they are injurious to bees. After enumerating 

 some probable and reasonable annoyances, such as prudent owners 

 would wish far removed from their bee-gardens, he adds 



" . . . . aut ubi concava pulsu 

 Saxa sonant, vocisque offensa resultat imago." 



