VENTRILOQUISM. 



hills. No threshing-machine could have been 

 heard so far. Moreover, it was near midnight ; 

 no threshing-machine would have been at work 

 at such an hour. 



A careful examination showed that the 

 sound could be heard much more plainly in 

 one part of the room than elsewhere. We were 

 getting warmer. Following this trail, we soon 

 found a spot where the noise was distinct and 

 individualised by those small subsidiary noises 

 which prove a sound near. It was finally iden- 

 tified as proceeding from a narrow crack be- 

 tween the window-frame and the wall, where 

 a little plaster had fallen away. The wind 

 blew through this crack and caused the vibra- 

 tion of a half-loose piece of wall-paper which 

 projected over the crack and acted like the 

 tongue of a reed instrument, producing a note 

 which varied in strength with the force of the 

 wind. 



Here, again, we have the ears giving in- 

 formation as to the intensity, quality, and pitch 

 of a note, and the mind, upon this information, 

 trying to base conclusions, at first unsuccess- 

 fully, as to the distance and possible direction 

 and origin of the sounds which are heard. 



Although in the ordinary affairs of life the 

 formation of a judgment by the mind follows 

 with instinctive rapidity upon the perception 

 of sounds by the ear, so that we commonly 

 think we hear where a sound is as well as what 



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