120 Star anfr Meatbet Gossip 



morning the secret was out ; there had been a terrific 

 storm in Caterham Valley, twelve miles off, and that 

 solitary clap of thunder was the only echo of it that 

 came my way. 



Thunder, it is generally admitted, is capable of 

 being heard over a distance of eighteen miles. Mr. 

 T. B. Blathwayt, of Cape Town, recently stated in 

 The English Mechanic that he had heard it at that 

 distance on the veld. And if I may digress a little I 

 should like to record Mr. Blathwayt 's experience in 

 regard to the distance at which gun-fire can be heard. 

 When at Lyme Regis, during the time of the 1897 

 Jubilee, he heard a continuous booming like distant 

 thunder on the day of the great naval review at Spit- 

 head, and he has small doubt that it was caused by 

 the guns, some 80 miles away. Mr. Blathwayt believes 

 that in anticyclonic conditions sound would travel 

 farther, " as owing to the descending currents the 

 sound-waves would be more concentrated and rein- 

 forced than if the wind were ascending and dispersing 

 them into space." A Swedish observer, too, notes 

 that the bombarding of Libau, during the early period 

 of the present World War, was perfectly well heard on 

 the east coast of his island of Gottland. The detona- 

 tions were so loud at times as to make the windows of 

 the houses facing the shore rattle again. He places 

 the distance from Libau to Gottland at one hundred 

 miles. I am aware that there are many instances on 

 record of the sound of guns having carried to much 

 greater distances than those I have mentioned. I 

 give the above more as interesting contributions to 

 the existing records than as anything extraordinary in 

 themselves. 



