ECHOES. 



249 



path to Norehill, 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 speaker either retires or 

 advances, that his mouth would at once be above 

 or below the object. 



We measured this polysyllabical echo with 

 great exactness, and found the distance to fall 

 very short of Dr. Plot's rule for distinct articula- 

 tion ; for the Doctor, in his History of Oxfordshire, 

 allows 120 feet for the return of each syllable 

 distinctly; hence this echo, which gives ten 

 distinct syllables, ought to measure 400 yards, 

 or 1 20 feet to each syllable ; whereas our distance 

 is only 258 yards, or near 75 feet to each syllable. 

 Thus our measure falls short of the Doctor's as 

 five to eight ; but then it must be acknowledged 

 that this candid philosopher was convinced after- 

 wards, that some latitude must be admitted of 

 in the distance of echoes according to time and 

 place. 



When experiments of this sort are making, it 

 should always be remembered, that weather and 

 the time of day have a vast influence on an echo ; 

 for a dull, heavy, moist air deadens and clogs the 

 sound ; and hot sunshine renders the air thin and 

 weak, and deprives it of all its springiness ; and a 

 ruffling wind quite defeats the whole. In a still, 

 clear, dewy evening, the air is most elastic ; and 

 perhaps the later the hour the more so. 



Echo has always been so amusing to the imagi- 

 nation, that the poets have personified her ; and 

 in their hands she has been the occasion of many 

 a beautiful fiction. Nor need the gravest man be 

 ashamed to appear taken with such a phenomenon, 



