FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 
83 
In one of the late numbers of the Times appeared a letter 
(Nov. 9, 1858), written by a variety of the species Anonymus 
incofjniius. The writer declares that his attention has frequently 
been called to certain low, sullen, subterranean sounds, which he has 
likewise heard himself, on the coast of Wales (Cardiganshire). These 
sounds resemble the report of distant artillery. I notice this, as I have 
likewise heard similar noises on the coast of Flanders, whilst reposing, 
during a bright summer's day, on the dunes near Ostend. The 
sounds, which I had heard before, and attributed to distant cannon, 
I noticed again last summer, when they were pretty nearly of the 
same intensity as formerly, and resembled the low sullen reports of 
very distant artillery ; but none was at that time active in Belgium, 
and we have no reasons to suppose that the noise arose from guns 
at sea. 
In connexion with this, I find in a little work lately published,* 
a chapter called " Sounds from the Sea," commencing thus : — "In the 
west coast of England a particular hollow noise on the sea-coast is 
known always to foretell the approach of a very heavy storm." Now, 
unluckily, I do not happen to recollect if any storm or bad weather 
followed closely upon the sounds I heard on the coast of Flanders. 
I believe not, nor does the writer in the Times allude to any such 
circumstance. 
In the year 1844 the Polytechnic Society of Cornwall published 
a report, in which the writer says : — " In Mount's Bay, and probably 
in all places similarly situated, there is often heard inland, at a certain 
distance from the shore, a peculiar hollow, murmuring sound, locally 
termed ' the calling of the sea,' which, if proceeding from a direction 
different from that of the wind, is almost always followed by a change 
of wind, genei'ally within twelve hours It is heard sometimes at 
a distance of several miles, although on the shore from which it 
proceeds the sea may not be louder than usual This sound must 
not be confounded with that arising from a ' ground-sea,' which is the 
well-known agitation along the shore occasioned by a distant storm ; 
.... for this latter noise propagates itself in every direction, and 
chiefly in that of the wind, whereas the ' calling ' is heard only in one 
direction, and usually contrary to the wind." The writer of this 
report believes the noise to depend upon " a certain condition of the 
atmosphere," regards it as a forerunner of certain changes in the 
weather, and calls it " a very common but not generally known " 
phenomenon. 
That the noise last spoken of is the same as tliat described by the 
writer in the Times, and that which I have myself heard two or three 
times on the coast of Flanders, there can be little doubt ; but as to its 
cause I am perfectly ignorant, nor am I inclined to attribute it to 
" certain conditions of the atmosphere." It may probably have some 
connexion with the rumbling subterraneous noise so frequent during 
* M'Phun's " Weather hidicator," dedicated to Prof. Nichol. Glasgow, 1857. 
G 2 
