The Hickman courier., 1872-11-09

Slmonetta, about two miles from
Milan, which reflects a word twenty
times over. Gasendi tells Of anoth-
er, near the tomb Of Cecilia Metella
at Rome, which repeated the first
verse of the Hneid eight times; and
third, near Coblentz. repeats sew
enteen times. There is cul-de-sac
called the Ochsenthal, formed Of the
great cliffs Of the Engelhorner, near
Rosenlaui, in Switzerland, where the
echoes warble in a wonderful manner.
The sound Of the Alpine horn, also,
rebounding from the rocks of the
Wetterhorn or the Jungfrau, is, in
the first instance, heard roughly; but
by successive reflections the notes
are rendered more soft and flute
like, the general diminution of in
tensity giving the impression that
the source of sound is retreating
further and further into the solitudes
of ice and snow.
THE LUBLEI ECHO.
A very famous echo is that at Lur-
lei. It is thus described by the
author of the "Rhine and It's Pictur-
esque Scenery" "An old soldier
blows a tantivy on his huge French
hunting horn. No sooner have the
fine brassy notes ceased than you
hear them repeated on the opposite
Shores SO distinctly, too, that,
though you sSnU9rSs'3s .sJaz- AN echo. y
you can hardly persuade yourself
that there is not some one concealed
on the top Of Lurlei initiating the
sounds. The next portion of the
entertainment is with the musket;
and for this the old guard waits till
the air is perfectly still. Then di-
rectly lull ensues in the breezes,
click goes the trigger, and the report
rattles against the wall of the oppo-
site rock as if the crags were tum-
bling down In a shower; and no
sooner has it burst upon the ear
than you hear second explosion,
and almost as loud as the first, clat-
tering behind the summit of Lurlei.
"This time, however, the echo
does not end here, for the moment
after the sound seems to be ascend
ing the river in a kind of small
thunder peal, muttering along the
opposite cliffs; then comes a pause
as it leaps across the stream, after
which you catch it again on the
same side Of the Rhine as yourself,
and ascending along the rocks IN
fainter and faster peals, tillitreaches
the vineyard adjoining the Falsen-
bank, by St Goar; and the next in
slant, after another pause, the ear
detects it across the river once
more, where it ultimately expires,
with faint puff, just above the ruins
of Katz."
Visitors TO Killarney Will remem-
Der the fine echo in the Gap of Dun
dee. When a trumpet is sounded
in certain place in the Gap. the
sonorous waves reach the ear in sue
cession after one, two, three, or more
reflections from the adjacent cliffs,
and thus die away in the sweetest
cadences. One at Woodstock Park,
near Oxford, repeats seventeen sylla-
bles by day and twenty by night an
other at Shipley Church, in Sussex,
does no fewer than twenty-one sylla-
bles.
THE ULEEswATER ECHO.
We get more astonishing effects
still at Ulleswater, lying between the
counties of Cumberland and West
-IIl6re1a.as.l. Tilzzo uas.s.7 k~-.2sa,s ,-...sl.
may be how, a small vessel on the
lake, mounted with brass cannon for
the purpose of exciting the echoes.
A gunshot was distinctly reverberat-
ed seven of eight times. It first rose
overhead in one vast peal; then sub
DUNG a few seconds, it rose again in
a grand interrupted burst on the
right.
Presently it rose on the left, and
thus thrown from rock to rock in
sort of aerial perspective, it was
caught again perhaps by some near
er promontory, and returning full
on the ear, surprised you, after you
thought all was over, with a loud
peal as at first. The grandest effect,
however, was produced by success
sive discharge of cannon at the in
terval of few seconds between each.
The effect of the first was not over
when the echoes of the second, the
third, or perhaps the fourth began.
Such a variety of awful sounds,
mingling and commingling, and at
the same moment heard from all
sides, made one imagine that the
very foundations of every rock on
the lake were giving way, and the
whole scene, from some strange con-
yulsion of nature, was falling into
general ruin.
SCOTCH ECHOES.
Though the natives of Scotland
are generally supposed to be OK
tremely reticent of speech them
selves, their country, as it happens,
is very loquacious in the matter of
echoes. This is accounted for by the
rugged and mountainous character
Of the northern kingdom. Posen-
cath, near Glasgow; Cartlane Craigs,
Lanarkshire; Loeb Dochart, Perth
shire; Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh;
Loeb Kinellan, Cromarty; the castles
of Auchipduin and Kingerloch, IN
Argylshire, are all noted for what
Doctor Tyndall calls wave motions,
and tourists linger at these places
and listen with delight to the curious
effects produced.
At Rosenate, if a trumpet be
played, the echo will begin the Same
tune, and repeat it accurately; as
soon as this echo has ceased another
will give the tune in a lower note,
and, after the second has ceased, n
third will succeed with equal fidelity,
though in a much feebler tone. But
the most beautiful echo in Scotland
-one of the finest in the world
occurs in the ancient and ruined
abby church of Paisley. When the
door of the chapel is shut the rever-
berations are equal to the sound OF
thunder. Breathe a single note In
music and the tone ascends gradual
ly till it dies away in soft and most
bewitching ,murmurs If a good
voice sing, or a musical instruments
be well played, the effect is inde-
scribably agreeable.-AH the Year
Round