The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1862-11-22
singing Sands and s6t.n ndi 90
5s MOuntsains.

Thossands ef years ago the pillars Of Mem.
non wsre famed h,r giving rntisical sounds.
Sounds ike tho,e Of bells haYc bcep heard, =.
at different localities, to Come from the dcplb
OF the ocean. and now 40 hear Of musical
mountains and singing sands.
Five such localities ars already o., record. :
The first il Dscl'ebei Nakus (f,,ll mountain) :
upon tho peninsula. Sinai. on tho shores of
the Red Sca, northwestwnrd Of the city Of
Tor. The ceIebra ted traveller, Seetzen. OF
Oldenburg, was the ti,,t European savant
who assembled IT, he found It consstns Of
brittle. white sandstone. covered on. two
sides with loose sand. This sand when
brought into motion. produces the sound. I.
The traveller. when ascending. pa ssc,l over !,
this region Of loose s,ni aud he son dis
covered that the noise i, made in hiding,
down the slope became BY degreos. louder
and lorder When no reached tho summit,
such a fiightfnl sound was heard that Is !,
shook tho whole mounlain. and no h;,nscif !,
became excited in the highest degree. :.
Some time afterwards this same mountain /,
was visited by Mr.. Gay. Of Oxford. and moro !,
recently by Mr. Ward. both Englishmcn.--s
They give very nearly the same accpuat Of /,
this phennmsnon. All ascribe the cause to !.
the fact that the sand glidrs down, the hars !,
mountain sides. Ward hoard at frst, only
a feeble tone Ike that Of the Cute !; suddenly !,
il became strong, like that Of AZ organ. and
the whole hin hogan TO vibrate. The sound
became k,uder in proportion to ths quantity.
Of sand set in unsion by the stops Of ha
traveller. ~.
Alexander Burns visited in 1882, a sim. !,
lar hill This was the Rey Rawan. (ihs J,
moving n,ountain.) which is also about 4oo !,
feet high. Its ascent is an incline of about q,
30 degrees, covered With layer Of sand,
surrounded by a still deeper border of limo 2
and sandstone. Gliding down on this sand /,
il emits loud. hollow tome. similar to that
ofa great drum. This was already known
in the l5ta century. A third, mountain Of !,
this kind ia tho .'El Bramador," )" the yelling, ?
barking mountain in Chilli, in regard e:I {
which Charles Darwin made similar obser. !,
vatIons. ,--t,g ,,e a..,., -,,.sr al Il
|. Charles, Mayer. in his hook Towards Sac-1a
ranento, mentians another-to exist in Caii-is
fornia, and recently fifth locality Of .this .
kind has bsen discovered by Hngh Miller. 4
upon the small island Eisg. on tho western /,
coast Of Scotland. According to Miller,sa
gsologist Of great renown. q stratum Of oolite :
exists on this island. This substance when
reduced to sand. becomes white, mealy
mass Miller observed, that on every step
he took, the sand gave . peculiar musical
sound. Il is. however, not prsven that -ool.es r
sand alone produces sounds. Tho above
mentioned Mr.. Ward says, that the friction /,
Of the sharp-edged grains of siliceous sand. !,
exposed to the rays Of tropical sun, caused :
the resonant quality of the sand We must !.
leave the investigation Of this matter to sci
entific men, being confident that they viii
explain the mystery. To tho musician we )
hope it will be an interesting musical Curl
O ,ity 49, y, 5 4,