A MYSTERIOUS NOISE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 29, 19 September 1911, Page 6

A MYSTERIOUS NOISE.

A curious phenomenon has been noted in the centre of Australia.' it is

■ Strange explosive report, the cause of which has not been definitely determined. In a paper, road last week in Sydney Dr. J. B. Clelmd described .'.is personal experience of the piicnomjnon thus, reading from his dairy, written 'when - camped on the Btudlry River, North-west Australia: “At 8.35 to-night (August. 9, 1.907). as wo lay in our tent, we suddenly hoard a dull roar, I;sting several seconds, increasing in loudness and then decreasing. Everybody heard it, and looked round. The sky was quite clear and there was not a sign of thunder. There was no apparent tremor. I thought it came from the south-east, others that it was from the north-east.' Some suggested that it was the rumble of a herd of cattle galloping over a clay pan, with hollow ground below, as they hear it in the Kimberley district. jMi- Giles and I ponder it' it is a volj came' eruption somew here, as at Krakatoa in the eighties. Saturday, August 10.—A comet -with a long but not very brilliant tail in the east early this morning. Some of the men camped twenty miles to the west from here inquired if we bad heard the rumble last night. It appeared that an Afghan jumped up and said, ‘Buggy coming.’ Whatever - the sound was, it was not caused by cattle galloping.” Dr. Cleland quoted accounts from Sturt and other travellers and scientists, who had noted the phenomenon, j and gave a number of conjectures of scientists as to the origin of the explosions—globular lightning and subterranean or subaqueous volcanic or seismic 1 agencies. Ho confessed that ho had not been able to form a decided opinion on the subject, but he thought it most probable that the noises were due to the bursting apart of rocks, caused by -the changes in temperature in tiie atmosphere during the day and night, as in Central A'*tralia there was often a very big difference in temperature in the (lay and bight. Mr R. H. Mathews, in the discussion that followed, said he .had frequently hoard the noises in the districts west of, the River Darling. He had not been able to discover their cause.