so NATURAL HISTORY 



Ali echoes have some one place to ivhich 

 they are returned stronger and mom disf- 

 tinctthan to any other; and that is always 

 the place that lies at right angles with the 

 object of repercnssion, and is not too neair, 

 nor too far off. Buildings, or naked rocks, 

 re-echo much more articulately than hang- 

 ing w^iods or vales : because in the latt-er 

 the voice is as it were entangled, and em- 

 barrassed in the covert, and weakened m 

 the rebound. 



The true object of this echo, as we found 

 by various experiments, is the stone-built, 

 tiled hop-kiln in Gally-lane, which mea- 

 sures in front, 40 feet, and from the ground 

 to the eaves 12 feet. The true centrum 

 phonicum, or just distance, is one particular 

 spot in the King*s-Jidd, in the path to N ore- 

 hill, on the very brink of the steep balk 

 above the hollow cart way. In thi« case 

 there Ss no choice of distance ; but the 

 path, by mere contingency, happens to be 

 the lucky, the identical spot, because the 

 ground rises or faills so immediately, if the 

 speaker eitlier retires or advances, that his 



