ON SUBTERRANEOUS AND OMINOUS SOUNDS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 193, 8 December 1876, Page 14

ON SUBTERRANEOUS AND OMINOUS SOUNDS.

Sib John Herschell has lately considered this subject, and conjectures that the noises of Nacoos in Arabia may be owing to the subterraneous production of steam, by the generation and condensation of which, under circumstances, sounds are well known to be produced He also remarks, that wherever extensive subterraneous caverns exist, communicating with each other, or with the atmosphere, by means of small orifices, considerable differences of temperature may occasion currents of air to pass through these apertures, with sufficient velocity for producing sonorous vibrations. The sounds described by Humboldt, as heard at sunrise by those who sleep on certain granitic rocks, on the banks of the Orinoco, may be explained on this principle. The sounds produced at sunrise by the statue of Memnon, and the twang, like the breaking of a string, heard by the French naturalists to proceed from a granite mountain at Carnac, are viewed by him as referable to a different cause, viz. : — To pyrometric expansions and contractions of the heterogeneous material, of which the statue and mountain consist. Similar sounds, and from the same cause, are emitted when heat is applied to any connected mass of machinery ; and the snapping often heard in the bars of a grate affords a familiar example of this phenomenon. The following amusing account of an ominous sound is given by Gairdner, in his book on the " Music of Nature " : — "In one of the baronial castles of the North, which has been uninhabited for years, there were heard at times such extraordinary noises as to confirm the opinion among the country people that the place was haunted. An old story was current that an heir apparent had been murdered by an uncle, that he might possess the estate. This wicked man, however, after enjoying it for a time was so annoyed by the sounds in the castle, that he retired with an uneasy conscience from the domain, and died in France. Not many years ago the property descended to a branch of the female line (one of the heroes of Waterloo), who, nothing daunted, was determined to make this castle his place of residence. As the noises were a subject of real terror to his tenantry, he formed the resolution of sleeping in the castle on the night he took possession, in order to do away those superstitious fears. Not a habitable room could be found, except one occupied by an old gardener and his wife in the western turret, and he ordered his camp-bed to be set up in that apartment. It was in the autumn at nightfall that he repaired to the gloomy abode leaving his servant at the village inn, and dismissing the antiquated pair to take lodgings at a farm hard by. It was one of those nights which are checkered with occasional gleams of moonshine and darkness, when the clouds are in a high wind. He slept well for the two first hours, and was then awakened by a low mournful sound that ran through the apartments. This warned him to be up and accoutred. He descended the turret stairs with a brilliant light, which, on coming to the ground floor cast a gigantic shadow of himself on the high embattled walls. Here he stood and listened, when presently a hollow moan ran through the corridor, and died away. This was followed by one of a higher key, a sort of scream, which directed his footsteps with more certainty to the spot. Pursuing the sound, he found himself in the hall of his ancestors, and, vaulting upon the large oaken table, set down his lamp, and folding his cloak about him, determined to wait for the appearance of all that was terrible. The night, which had been stormy, became suddenly still, the dark, flitting clouds had sunk below the horison, and the moon insinuated her silvery light through the chinks of the mouldering pile. . As our hero had spent the morning in the chase, Morpheus came unbidden, and he fell upon the table. His dream was short, for close upon him issued forth the horrid groan ; amazed he started up, and sprang at the unseen voice, fixing, with a powerful blow, his Toledo steel in the arras. The blade was fust, and held him to the spot. At this moment the moon shot a ray that illumined the hall, and showed that behind tie waving folds there lay the cause concealed. Bis sword he left, and to the turret retraced his steps. "When morning came a welcome crowd, greeting, asked if he had met the ghoet. "Oil, yes," replied the knight, " dead as a door nail, behind the screen he ies, where xny sword has pinned him fast ; bring the wrenching bar, and we'll haul the disturber out." With such a leader, and broad day to boot, the valiant throng tore down the screen, where the sword was fixed, when 10, in a recess, lay the fragments of a chapel organ, and the square wooden trunks, made for hallowed sounds, were vied as proj b to stay the work when the hall was coated round

with oak. The wondering clowns now laughed aloud at fche mysterious voice. It was the northern blast that found its way through, the crannies of the wall to the groaning pipes that alarmed the country round for .a century. — ' Edinburgh Hew Philosophical Journal.'