January 2, it'96] 



NATURE 



[97 



render it without regret, and should gladly welcome a destructive 

 •criticism of Mr. Culverwell's argument. 



I have had some conversation with Sir Robert Ball on this 

 subject, and I find that he is not as yet disposed to change his 

 ■opinion. He contends that, when we bear m mind that it is in 

 the tropics that the great oceanic currents get their warmth, we 

 should admit that the change in the daily supply of heat by one- 

 fifth part is competent to produce a great change in northern 

 climates. Whilst I think that he would not now lay much stress 

 on the quantitative results derived from the supposed temperature 

 of space, he would still maintain that the cause is adequate to 

 the effect. But does not this bring us nearly back to Croll's 

 point of view, and demand a discussion of the effect of diminished 

 or increased sun-heat on oceanic circulation ? 



December i6, 1895. G. H. Darwin. 



[At the request of the Editor, one sentence has been erased 

 from the original letter. ] 



Barisal Guns. 



With reference to Prof. Darwin's letter in Nature of October 

 31, 1895, relative to Barisal Guns, I enclose a communication, 

 which I received from an observer familiar with the phenomenon. 



Medical College, Lahore. D. G. F. Grant. 



I first heard the Barisal Guns in December 1 871, on 

 my way to Assam from Calcutta through the Sunderbans. The 

 weather was clear and calm, no sign of any storms. All day the 

 noises on board the steamer prevented other sounds from being 

 heard ; but when all was silent at night, and we were moored in 

 one or other of the narrow channels in the neighbourhood of 

 Barisal, Morelgunge and upwards, far from any villages or other 

 habitations, with miles and miles of long grass jungle on every 

 side, the only sounds the lap of the water or the splash of earth, 

 falling into the water along the banks, then at intervals, 

 irregularly, would be heard the dull muffled boom as of distant 

 •cannon. Sometimes a single report, at others two, three, or 

 more in succession ; never near, always distant, but not always 

 ■equally distant. Sometimes the reports would resemble cannon 

 from two rather widely separated opposing forces, at others from 

 different directions but apparently always from the southward, 

 that is seaward. We were not very far from the sea when I 

 first heard them, and on mentioning to an old lady on board 

 that I heard distant cannon, she first told me of the mysterious 

 sounds known as the " Barisal Guns." For the next two years 

 I was in Upper Assam, above Goalpara, and do not remember 

 •ever hearing them there ; but in 1874 I was working in the 

 ■Goalpara district in the tract south of Dhubri, between the 

 Brahmaputra and the Ciaro Hills ; sometimes near the river, 

 sometimes near the foot of the hills, at others between the two. 

 I gradually worked down as far as Chilmari Ghat (I think it is 

 ■called), the landing-place for Tura, the headquarters of the Garo 

 Hills district, and distant quite 300 miles from the mouths of the 

 Brahmaputra and Ganges. The villages are few and far between 

 and very small, firearms were scarce, and certainly there were no 

 ■cannon in the neighbourhood, and fireworks were not known to 

 the people. I think I am right in saying I heard the reports 

 ■every night while south of Dhubri, and often during the day. 

 The weather on the whole was fine. Short, sharp " nor' westers " 

 •occasionally burst on us of an evening, with much thunder and 

 lightning ; but the days were clear, and, as a rule, the sounds 

 were heard more distinctly on clear days and nights. 



I specially remember spending a quiet Sunday, in the month 

 of May, with a friend at Chilmari, near the river-bank. We 

 ■had both remarked the reports the night before and when near 

 the hills previously. About 10 a.m. in the day, weather clear 

 and calm, we were walking quietly up and down near the river- 

 bank, discussing the sounds, when we heard the booming 

 distinctly, about as loud as heavy cannon would sound on a 

 quiet day about ten miles off, down the river. Shortly after we 

 'heard a heavy boom very much nearer, still south. Suddenly 

 we heard two quick successive reports, more like horse-pistol or 

 musket (not rifle) shots close by. I thought they sounded in 

 the air about 1 50 yards due west of us over the water. My 

 friend thought they sounded north of us. We ran to the bank, 

 and asked our boatmen, moored below, if they heard them, and 

 if so in what direction. They pointed south ! 



As we often did with boatmen, we asked these their opinion 

 of the sounds. They said they heard them at all seasons and 

 in every direction all up the river from Serajgunge to Dhubri— 

 itheir beat ; that they were in the air, and came from the gods 



NO. 1366, vol, ^T^ 



(Deota) celebrating the continuous marriage of the Ganges 

 goddess Ganga) with the Brahmaputra (son of Brahma) ; that 

 they were heard in their fathers' time, and long before. We 

 could elicit nothing further from them or others. 



The year previous I had discussed the sounds with Captain 

 Stewart, of the Survey of India Department, who had some 

 years previously been employed on the Survey of the Sunderbans 

 tracts. He said the reports were heard all over the Sunderbans ; 

 that several experts had failed to account for them. He once 

 had a theory that they were caused by submarine eruptions in 

 the Bay of Bengal ; but this would hardly account for them 300 

 miles distant, and I believe they are never heard out at sea in 

 the bay. 



I have heard planters (who have heard them near the hills 

 where bamboo jungles abound) say that they were merely reports 

 caused by bamboos bursting in jungle fires. But they are heard 

 far from all bamboo jungles, and in the absence of jungle fires. 



Strange to say, I next heard the reports when crossing the 

 Mahanadi River, between Purnea and Kishengunge in the old 

 road from Sahebgunge to Darjeeling. 



The time was about ten at night, the evening close, hot, and 

 very cloudy, but no thunder anywhere. The booming sounded 

 some miles away. There are no cannon anywhere in the 

 neighbourhood, nor any large cities where possibly fireworks 

 might be in progress. The year after I heard them again at the 

 same place ; on this occasion the sky was clear and starry, the 

 time between 3 and 4 a.m., the booming distant but very 

 distinct. 



I have no theory. I fancy the sounds must be purely electric, 

 but certainly have nothing to do with clouds, nor with cannon, 

 nor fireworks, nor jungle fires. 



If I can answer any other questions on the subject, I will be 

 pleased to do so ; but I think I have told you all I know. 



G. B. Scott. 



Remarkable Sounds. 



I have this day received from the Rev. W. S. Smith, Con- 

 gational Minister of Antrim, Ireland, the following account of 

 natural sounds connected in some way with Lough Neagh. The 

 details are so interesting that I send them as a contribution to 

 your present correspondence on natural sounds. 



Highgate, N., December 19, 1895. C. ToMLiNSON. 



Lough Neagh is a sheet of water covering an area of 

 upwards of 150 square miles, with very gradually receding 

 shores, excepting at one or two spots. For many years after my 

 settlement as minister here from England, I heard at intervals, 

 when near the lake, cannon-like sounds ; but not being acquainted 

 with the geography of the distant shores, or the location of 

 towns, or possible employments carried on, I passively con- 

 cluded that the reports proceeded from quarrying operations, or, 

 on fine summer days, from festive gatherings in Co. Derry, 

 or Co. Tyrone. In time I came to understand that it was 

 not from the opposite shores, but from the lake itself that the 

 sounds proceeded. After questioning many of the local residents, 

 I extended my inquiries to the fishermen, but they could assign 

 no cause. A strange thing about the matter is that the people 

 generally knew nothing of the phenomenon, and that it is 

 shrouded in mystery. I have heard the sounds during the whole 

 year. ... I have heard the reports probably twenty times 

 during the present year, the last being on a Sunday afternoon 

 a month since, when I heard two explosions ; but with two 

 exceptions they have all seemed to come from many miles away, 

 from different directions at different times. They have come 

 apparently from Toome Bay, from the middle of the lake, and 

 from Langford Lodge Point, about nine miles distant. A fisher- 

 man thought they must be the result of confined air that reached 

 the lake by means of springs that are believed to rise here and 

 there in the bottom. But the lake is shallow, seldom more 

 than 45 feet deep. The depression now covered by the lake 

 having been caused, it is beHeved, by volcanic action when the 

 trap-rock of Co. Antrim was erupted, there may possibly be 

 subterranean passages, though I confess their occurrence does 

 not seem verj* probable ; while the sounds emanate, as stated, 

 from various parts of the lake. I have as yet spoken to no one 

 who observed any movement of the waters when explosions 

 took place, nor have I spoken to any one who was close to the 

 spot at the time. Rather every one seems to have heard them 

 only in the distance, which is strange, as fishermen are on the lake 

 during many months in the year, at all hours of the day and night. 



