Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-01-30

ECRQES AND hCOUSIlCS. eCuO III
Woodstock Park, Oxfordshire, repeats seven
One on the banks of the Lago del Lupo, above
the fall of Terni, repeats fifteen. But the
most remarkable echo known is one on the
north side of Shipley Church, in Sussex, which
distinctly repeats twenty -one syllables
In the Abbey Church at ST. Adams is a
curious echo. The tick of watch may be
heard from one end of the church to the
other. In Gloucester Cathedral gal
lery of an octagonal form conveys whisper
seventy-fve feet across the nave.
The following inscription is copied from this
gallery:
Doubt not but God, who sits on high,
Thy inmost secret prayers, can hear;
When dead wall thus cunningly
Conveys soft whispers to the ear.
In the Cathedral of Girgeuti, in Sicily, the
slightest whisper is borne with perfect distinct
ness from the great western door to the cornice
behind the high altar-a distance of two hun
dred and fifty feet By most unluckly COIN
cidence, the precise focus of divergence at the
former station was chosen for the place of the
confessional Secrets never intended tor the
public ear thus became known, to the dlsmay
of the confessors and the scandal of the people
by the resort of the curious to the opposite
point (which seems to have been discovered
accidentally till at length one listener, having
had his curiosity somewhat over gratihed by
hearing his wife avowal Of her own inhcelity,
this tell-tale peculiarly became generally
known and the confessional was removed.
In the whispering gallery of St. Paul's Lon
den, the faintest sound is faithfully conveyed
from one side to the other of the dome; but Is
not heard at any intermediate point.
In the Manfroni Palace at Venice Isl square
E1-n Haat hsob NTH
cave roof. in which person standing In the
centre, and stamping gently with foot on the
floor hears the sound repeated great many
times, but as his position devlates from the
centre, the reflected sounds grow fainter, and
at short distance wholly cease. The same
phenomenon occurred in the large room OF the
Library of the Museum at Naples.
An intelligent aud very respectable gentle
mau, named Ebenezer Snell, was IN coruheld
with negro on the 18th of June, l111G, in the
township OF Cummington, Massachusetts,, one
hundred END twenty nine miles west OF bunker
Hill. by the course Of the road, and at least one
hundred by an airline Some time during the
day the negro was lying on the ground, and re-
marked to Ebepezer that there was war some
where, for he could distinctly hear the cannon
aiding. Ebenezer put his ear to the ground,
and also heard the firing distinctly, and TOR
considerable time He remembers the fact.
, which made deep impression Oh bis mind, as
plainly as though it was yesterday.
Over water, or surface Of ice, sound IS
propagated with remarkable clearness apd
strength Dr. Hutton relates that, on quiet
part Of the Thames near Chelsea, he could
hear person read distinctly at the distance OF
one hundred and forty feet, while on the land
the same could only be heard at seventy six.
Lieutenant Foster in the third Polar expedl,,
tion of Captain Parry, found that be could hold
conversation with man across the harbor OF
Port Bowen, distance of six thousand SIX
hundred and ninety six feet, sr about nile
and quarter This, however, falls short OF
what is asserted by Derham and Dr. loung,
viz: that at Gibraltar the human voice has
been heard at the distance OF ten miles, the
distance across the straight.
DR.. Hearn, Swedish physician, relates that
he heard guns fired at Stockholm, on the occa-
sion of the death of one of the royal family,
in 1855, at the distance of thirty Swedish or
one hundred and eighty British miles.
The cannouade Of sea-fght between the
English and Dutch, in 1872, was heard across
England as far as Shrewsb bury, and even IN
Wales distance OF upwards of POO miles
from the scene of action.