The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1849-07-26
THE PHILOSOPHERS ECHO.


days trolc with the li,lc birds, carrying
towing pieces, powder and shot in album.
dance, and. moreover. having all ,ha. was
necessary Tor very respectable picnic
One member ofihc party was a ponp.
Gus little man named jerks. lie seemed
I" have thorough knowledge Of every
thing; TO hc one Of those men who have m
opinion OF their own upon every subject
which comes up, and arc bv no means IN
willing To bring it forward. Particular at
tcn.lon had this gentleman devoted to ma
turc. With Ill her phenomena, he seemed
perfectly conyersant: aud nothing could
happen in the physical world. bu, he had
an explanation Of il already. lie had seen all
he meieoric stones which had fallen IN
that part Of the country for ten wears. and
knew all about them, where they came
from. and what they were made Of lie
had Il perfect register Of the weather for
live years back in his MUD, aud he scarce
ever told his friends an even, Of his Lille
without letting them know how the Their
mnmetcr stood on that day.
But his grea, forte was in novel geologic
al theories. Ito was always bringing
out sono odd idea about the formation OF
the mountains which lay here aud there
near his residence, or some ludicrous cxpla.
nation Of the winding course of certain
river which ran though The town where he
lived, or going over his calculations Of the
probable duration of Niagara Falls lie
was truly philosopher.
As the party walked along through the
fields carving their guns on their shoulders.
some one made m illusion toa remarkable
echo with which he had met This at once
brough, our philosopher ont.
"Ah, ycs," said lie. ",hesc echoes nrc
remarkable things. Crcumst anccs have
led me 10 turn INV attention To them lately.
The ordinary scientific explanation Of them
is, that the sound is reflected from some on.
posing suracc, md thrown back to the
speaker. But sir" continued he, IL am de-
cidedly OF opinion that this theory is totally
and comple,el,a mistake; md TINT il is dcs-
tined to he exploded sir, and not impossibly
by this humble individual"
Here the philosopher paused, stamped his
gun on the ground, and looked very hard al,
the unfortunate person who had brought
forward this subject.
''Don't call Yourself an humble individual
my dear sir.' said ono Of the party, "sor
YOU re not one. Besides, little pride 10
a man Of your standing is very interest
ing"
"Well. sir" said jerks, 'spcrhnps its 40
bnt At any rate. IA said. am OF opinion
that tais old theor, IS destined to be cyplo.
ded. | have thought much upon the sub
zee, and have formed theory winch | in.
tend TO submi; ioihe American Phlosop.,ic-
nj society. at encc sir, suggesting te them
Tho deslrah|eness IT ins,,tn,inr "A series al
careful experiments. which am convinced
will show the world thu, am correct
"hal ms ,arnr, Is" he wen, On. ..tha,
lime. in lis variaas forms, has the power
81 reproducing sound. And whcreye, il i.
found in large quantities. there i win, We
call I'm echo. An echo. sir. IL nothing more
than manifestation Of this peculiar power
Of lime"
"Then the reason why the walls OF larre
rooms often echo 81 much. is the quality ot
limo in the morlcr ism, i,9" inquired one
OF the party, raihcr qnizzicaly.
"Egac,lv, sir; thank you,. said tho phi.
iosop'ier; al il capital Illustration; had
not thoncht al, before"
l.. this ,itne the party found themselves
on large smooth slope ofsronnJ Tbcrr
was upon j; scarcely single tree: il was a
smooth grassy piece Of land. and our shoot.
ing party were not TAR from it, centre. Al
nj the foot Of a Slope. perhaps n hundred
yards oil. there was long clamp Of elder
bushes running along in curved scrpcn.
tine course. towards the rinht and left
They showed that the smooth field in which
the party OF sporlsinen stood. was bounded
IN that side BY brook. In Fact. bv look
ins some distance to the right, one could rel
somc glmpses Of the water Of a prett,
broad stream which sparkled in the sun
and ran, aud danced its way along towards
lis home, the river. On the other side Of the
bushes aud stream, there rose abruptly n
steep hill; perhaps sixty rods in hcish,h
Il rose SO suddenly from behind the bushes
that they seemed like mere fringe placed
10 ornament the foot ola hill. Here and
ihcrcbushes grow upon the hill aide. There
were rocks and stones scattered upon it,
and some Of them deeply imbeddcd in the
soil. were evidently parts Of ledge Of
which the bill was principally composed.
"Therc," said the philosophic jerks, ''do
you see those rocks? They're limestone
! can tell it as far off as this, perfect,
we'll. That hill is full oflmes,one. Now,
gentlemen, protest TO you that have never
seen this hill before, nor dol know, in any
way, that an echo resides in il. But il
any OF you will cal! out, am sure you viii
hear splendid echo. Judge simply from