The 5\atural Hijlory 



the oppofite Hill juft without the gate at the Towns end, about 

 thirty paces dire&ly below the corner of a wall inclofing fome 

 hay-ricks, near Cbaucers houfe: fome advantage I guefs it re- 

 ceives from the rivulet that runs as it were in a direct line between 

 the two centers, and from the pond at the foot of the object 

 hill ; as alfo from two other hills that run obliquely up to it ; 

 Which may better be apprehended by the profpeft of the place, 

 as in Tab. i. Fig. 2* 



16. That this Echo makes return of fo many fyllables, and of 

 a different number in the day and night, being indifputable and 

 matter of faft *> I proceed in the next place to the reafons of thefe 

 certainties, which poflibly to every body may not be fo plain. 

 Firft then, the caufes why fome Echo's return more, and fome 

 fewer fyllables, I take to lye in the different diftances of the 

 obje&s (returning the voices) from the places of the fpeakers : 

 for by experience 'tis found, that if the fpeaker be too near the 

 objeft, the return is made fo quick upon him, that the^>o is as 

 it were drowned in the voice : but if he remove farther from it, 

 then it begins to be clear and diftincl: ; and if it be a potyjjlla- 

 bical one, it firft repeats one fyllable, then two, three, four, 

 five, or more, according as the fpeaker removes farther off it, 

 which I take to be the only true way of meafuring the proporti- 

 ons of the fpaces of the ground, requifite for the return of one 

 or more fyllables. That this is true, I (hall ufe no arguments to 

 perfwade, bccaufe the experiment is fubjeft to every manstryal ; 

 and if fo, it muft neceffarily be admitted, that the reafon why 

 this Echo returns fo much, is becaufe of the great diftance of the 

 objeft from the fpeaker. 



17, What diftance is required to the return of each fyllable, 

 is beft indeed determined by fuch a procedure, where the object 

 is fore-known, and the condition of the place will admit of the 

 experiment: but both thefe being wanting here (Echo's them- 

 felves being generally firft known, and not the obje&s) I was 

 forced to make ufe of a new analytical method, and find out the 

 objeft by the number of fyllables already returned, which being 

 feventeen in the day time, and twenty by night ; and having be- 

 fore found by frequent experience, that according to Blancanws s , 

 no one fyllable will be returned clearly, under the diftance of 24. 



* "Blanc ani Echotnetria 7b for em 5 . 



Geome- 



