STRANGE SOUNDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 119, 10 August 1927, Page 6

STRANGE SOUNDS

The whistling sands of Carnarvon are being examined under the microscope, in the hope that they will give up the secret of their whistling. Perhaps we may soon know more about these strange sounds. Mysterious sounds have often puzzled scientists, and do so still. Strange moanings are said to have heralded the great storm which swept across Florida not long ago. A generation ago. when a similar but less destructive cyclone crossed the lower end of the Peninsula State, these moaning sounds were also heard. The air at the time was deahtly still; it was pitch dark; and from somewhere, apparently overhead, there came at intervals the most uncanny moanings, for which no satisfactory explanation was forthcoming. Jn the history of Louisiana an even stranger instance is recorded. In March. 1722, there broke over Louisiana a storm of such force as terrified even the Red Indians. It lasted for three days with such fury that it banked up the waters of the Mississippi to a height of 15 feet, covering hundreds of square miles with flood. For eight daj r s preceding this extraordinary storm the people of the colony were terrified by a sound, muffled yet powerfully distinct, which seemed to ascend the river in the morning and return in the afternoon. It can hardly have been fancy, for all heard it, but the explanation of the mystery was beyond the power of science. Such mysterious noises are not unusual. They are heard at times in Italy, in India, and on the North Sea, Jn Italy they are known by the peasants as Bombio. and occur at intervals in the middle of the Apennines. It may be that they are caused by earth movements, but they are often heard when no earthquake is experienced . In the country lying between tho Garo Hills of Assam and the River Brahmaputra a far-off booming is often audible. This occurs in all weathers, but more often when the sky is clear. At times the sounds are very loud, resembling a distant cannonade. The superstitious boatmen who are familiar with them will tell you that they are due to the spirits which celebrate the marriage of the Ganges with the Brahmaputra. No scientific explanation has been found even now of these baffling musical sounds. In common use my mind is still Eager for every lovely thing— The solitudes of tarn and hill, Bright birds with honesty to sing, Bluebells and primroses that spill Cascades of colour on the spring. . . —John Drinkwater.