190 J. B. CLELAND. 



July 22, 7 p.m. — Heard a similar noise. July 30, 10*50 p.m. 

 — Rolling sound from the same quarter as on the previous 

 occasions ; lasted about thirty seconds. October 22, 10*30 

 p.m. — Rolling kind of noise for a few seconds. November 

 21, 8 p.m. — Slight rumbling sound. This was heard also by 

 Mr. Rose, a prospector, who got up and questioned some 

 natives camped alongside, who replied, 'That one alonga 

 ground.' February 14, 1889, 10*40 p.m. — Loud rumbling 

 sound for half a minute. The evenings were invariably 

 calm and gave no indications of any atmospheric disturb- 



Mr. R. H. Mathews, who mentions that these mysterious 

 noises are well known to bushmen in western New South 

 Wales, who speak of them as the 'desert sound,' has kindly 

 called my attention to the following reference which had 

 escaped my notice. It occurs in Taplin's 'The Narrinyeri' 

 (Adelaide, 1874, p. 48), a work dealing with the tribes of 

 aborigines inhabiting Lake Alexandrina, near the Murray 

 mouth in South Australia. "The natives also dread a 

 water spirit called Mulgewanke. The booming sound 

 which is heard frequently in Lake Alexandrina is ascribed 

 to him, and they think it causes rheumatism to those who 

 hear it. ... I have often wondered myself what the 

 noise is really caused by, which they ascribe to Mulge- 

 wanke. I have heard it dozens of times, and so have many 

 other persons. It resembles the boom of a distant cannon 

 or the explosion of a blast. Sometimes, however, it is more 

 like the sound made by the fall of a huge body into deep 

 water. It cannot be the peculiar sound made by the 

 Murray bittern, as I have often heard that too, and it is 

 not at all like the noise in the lake. At first I ascribed it 

 to people blasting wood on the opposite side, but since then 

 I have been convinced that this cannot be the case. One 

 peculiarity of the sound ascribed to the Mulgewanke is, 



