Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-07-08
CURIOUS NATURE.
An Explanation Of the "voices OF
the Mountains"


The mountains have voices in the
literal as well as the figurative sense.
They not only speak to the eye, but
also at times to the ear. In the soli-
tude and silence of wind and uninhab-
tied mountain regions the prospector
or hunter is sometimes startled by ex-
plOSions that resemble cannon shots.
In the settled regions near mining
camps these sounds would be attributed
to the firing of blasts, and would at
tract little attention, but when heard
in places remote from settlements, in
the stiffness of the mountains, they are
phenomena calculated to excite the
wonder and awe of the superstitious
Indian and to greatly puzzle the wan
dering. solitary white man. From
time to time mention is made of these
mysterious explosions by prospectors
returning to the Comstock from the
wilds of the mountains. In some in
stances prospectors have spent hours in
trying to find some supposed secret
camp or mine, being at the time quite
confident that the noise heard was the
explosion of a blast. Others hearing
these booming sounds in mountain sol
itudcs have attributed them to the fall
and explosion of meteoric stones. Two
prospectors who recently returned from
a trip to the Pahralagat mountain, in
Southern Nevada, asserted that on two
occasions they heard the report of burst
ing meteors that fell in the daytime.
They saw no falling meteors, but were
unable to think of any thing else that
could produce the sounds they heard.
Now. the fact is that these mysteri-
GUS explosions are heard in the mount
aims of many countries, but most fire.
9uently, it would seem, in mineral re-
gions They are phenomenon in re-
gard to which the scientists are almost
wholly silent. The first mention made
of the hearing of these singular explo-
sions in this part of the continent is
found in the journal of Lewis and
Clarke, who in 1908 pushed their way
through the wilderness to the Pacific
Ocean. They say that the strange re-
ports were attributed by the Indians to
the bursting of the rich deposits of
silver resting in the bosom of the
mountains. The explorers were in the
Rocky mountains when they heard the
sounds.
In 1910, when Wilson Price Hunt
and Donald M'KenZie, with number
OF Canadian vOyageurs, made their
way across the continent to the mouth
of the Columbia river, they reported
hearing strange explosions in the
Black hills. The reports seem to have
been more common there than in any
other place of which 1 am able TO find
any account. They say that sin the
most calm and serene weather, and at
all timca of the day or night. successive
reports are now and then heard among
these mountains, resembling the dis
charge of several pieces of artillery"
In 1854, members of the Darien ex-
ploring expedition, commanded by
Lieutenant Strain, U. s. N, while lost
and wandering in the mountains, heard
reports like the firing of a cannon, but
which they finally concluded to be the
sound of falling trees. The journal of
the expedition says in one place:
During the night all were aroused by
a sound like the report of heavy gun
from the northward and eastward, and
anxious looks anu inquiries were ex-
changed, for they supposed it to be the
nine o'clock gun of the 'Cyane.
''This may be" says the journal, ''but
We now distrust our ears, having been
so often deceived by the falling tim
ber.' Similar reports had very often
been heard as the party wandered about
in the mountains. and had been attrib-
uted to the falling of trees.
These singular explosions are said to
occur very frequently in Central and
South America. in the mountain re-
gions; also, in Brazil. Vasconcellas,
Jesuit father. describes one which he
gion of Piratiniga, and which he COM
pares to park of artillery. The In
dams told him that it was an explosion
of stones. The worthy father soon had
satisfactory proof of the truth OF their
information, for 1.-The very place was
found where rock had burst open and
exploded from its entrails a stony mass
like bomb-shell, and of the size of 3
bulls heart. This mass was broken
in its election, s.and." says the chroni-
Gle, wonderful was the internal or
ganization revealed. 1t had shell
harder even than iron, within which
were arranged, like the seeds of .
pomegranate, jewels of various colors;
some transparent as crystal. others of
. fine red and others of mixed hues."
The same phenomenon is reported to
occur occasionally in the province of
Ia Guara, Venezuela. where ssstones