i 
382 SHELLS. [Chap. XI. 
In the evening when the moon rose, I took a boat and 
accompanied the fishermen to the spot. We rowed 
about two hundred yards north-east of the jetty by the 
fort gate ; there was not a breath of wind, nor a ripple 
except those caused by the dip of our oars. On coming 
to the point mentioned, I distinctly heard the sounds in 
question. They came up from the water like the gentle 
thrills of a musical chord, or the faint vibrations of a 
wine-glass when its rim is rubbed by a moistened finger. 
It was not one sustained note, but a multitude of tiny 
sounds, each clear and distinct in itself ; the sweetest 
treble mingling with the lowest bass. On applying the 
ear to the woodwork of the boat, the vibration was 
greatly increased in volume. The sounds varied con- 
siderably at different points, as we moved across the 
lake, as if the number of the animals from which they 
proceeded was greatest in particular spots ; and occasion- 
ally we rowed out of hearing of them altogether, until 
on returning to the original locality the sounds were at 
once renewed. 
This fact seems to indicate that the causes of the 
soimds, whatever they may be, are stationary at several 
points; and this agrees with the statement of the 
natives, that they are produced by mollusca, and not by 
fish. They came evidently and sensibly from the depth 
of the lake, and there was nothing in the surrounding 
circumstances to support the conjecture that they could 
be the reverberation of noises made by insects on the 
shore conveyed along the surface of the water ; for they 
were loudest and most distinct at points where the na- 
ture of the land, and the intervention of the fort and 
its buildings, forbade the possibility of this kind of con- 
duction. 
