402 



SHELLS. 



[Chap. XI. 



tinued to clink audibly within the distance of twelve feet 

 during the whole meeting. These small animals were indivi- 

 dually not half the size of the last joint of my little finger. 

 What effect the mellow sounds of millions of these, covering 

 the shallow bottom of a tranquil estuary, in the silence of 

 night, might produce, I can scarcely conjecture. 



In the absence of your authentication, and of all geological 

 explanation of the continuous sounds, and of all source of fal- 

 lacy from the hum and buzz of living creatures in the air or 

 on the land, or swimming on the waters, I must say that I 

 should be inclined to seek for the source of sounds so audible 

 as those you describe rather among the pulmonated vertebrata, 

 which swarm in the depths of these seas — as fishes, serpents 

 (of which my friend Dr. Cantor has described about twelve 

 species he found in the Bay of Bengal), turtles, palmated birds, 

 pinnipedous and cetaceous mammalia, &c. 



The publication of your memorandum in its present form, 

 though not quite satisfactory, will, I think, be eminently cal- 

 culated to excite useful inquiry into a neglected and curious 

 part of the economy of nature. 



I remain, Sir, 



Yours most respectfully, 



Robert E. Grant. 



Sir «/. Emerson Tennent, $c. $c* 



