192 The Natural History 



prised, and could not be persuaded but that he was 

 mocked by some boy ; but, repeating his trials in several 

 languages, and finding his respondent to be a very adroit 

 polyglot, he then discerned the deception. 



This echo in an evening, before rural noises cease, 

 would repeat ten syllables most articulately and distinct- 

 ly, especially if quick dactyls were chosen. The last 

 syllables of 



"Tityre, tu patulce recuhans." , . . 



were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first : 

 and there is no doubt, could trial have been made, but 

 that at midnight, wlien the air is very elastic, and a dead 

 stillness prevails, one or two syllables more might have 

 been obtained ; but the distance rendered so late an 

 experiment very inconvenient. 



Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best ; for when 

 we came to try its powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed 

 spondees of the same number of syllables, 



" Monstrum honendum, infuiaie, ingens." . . . 



we could perceive a return but of four or five. 



All echoes have some one place to which they are 

 returned stronger and more distinct than to any other ; 

 and that is always the place that lies at right angles with 

 the object of repercussion, and is not too near, nor too 

 far off. Buildings, or naked rocks, re-echo much more 

 articulately than hanging wood or vales ; because in the 

 latter the voice is as it were entangled, and embarrassed 

 in the covert, and weakened in the rebound. 



The true object of this echo, as we found by various 

 experiments, is the stone-built, tiled hop-kiln in Galley- 

 lane, which measures in front 40 feet, and from the 

 ground to the eaves 12 feet. ThQixxiQ ce?itrum phonicum, 

 or just distance, is one particular spot in the King's- 

 field, in the path to Nore-hill, on the very brink of the 

 steep balk above the hollow cart way. In this case 

 there is no 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 



