The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-06-23
SINGULAR SOUNDS.
QUEER EXPLOSIONS HEARD IN
MOUNTAIN REGIONS.
Where the Peculiar Sounds Are
Heard-What Produces Loud
Reports in Mountains-The
Explosion of Goodies.

| Inc mountains nave voices IN Cne llC-
eral as we'll as the fgurative sense. They
not only speak to the eye, but also al
times to the ear. In the solitude and
silence of wild and uninhabited noun
tain regions the prospector or hunter i:
sometimes startled by explosions that re-
semble cannon shots. In the settled re-
gions near mining camps these sounds
would be attributed to the firing Of
blasts, and would attract little atten
tion; but when heard in places re
mote from settlements, in the still
ness of the mountains, they art
phenomena calculated to excite the
wonder and awe of the superstitious In
dian and to greatly puzzle the wandering
solitary white man. From time to time
mention is made of these mysterious ex
plosions by prospectors returning to the
Comstock from the wild ofthe mountains
In some instances 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 blast. Others hearing
these booming sounds in mountain soil.
tudes have attributed them to the fall
and explosion of mcteoric stones. Two
prospectors who recently returned from a
trip to the Pahranagat Mountains, in
Southern Nevada, asserted that on two
occasions they heard the report of burst.
ing metcors that fell in the daytime.
They saw no falling meteors, but were
unable to think of anything else that
could produce the sounds they heard.
Now, the fact is that these mysterious
explosions are heard in the mountains of
many countries, but most frequently, it
would seem, in mineral regions. They are
phenomenon in regard to which the
scientists are almost wholly silent. The
first mention made of the hearing of these
singular explosions in this part Of the
continent is found in the journal of Lewis
and Clarke, who in 1903 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 bosoms of the mountains.
The explorers were in the Rocky Noun
tains when they heard the sounds.
These singular explosions a:e said to
occur very frequently in Central and
South America, in the mountain regions :;
also in Brazil. Vasconcelles, Jesuit
father, describes one which he heard in
the Sierra, or mountain region of
Piratiniga, and which he compares to q
park of artillery. The Indians told him
that it was an explosion of stones. The
worthy father soon had q satisfactory
proof of the truth of their information,
for "the very place was found where a
rock had burst open and exploded from
its entrails a stony mass, like bomb
shell, and of the size of bulls heart"
This mass was broken in its election,
"and," says the chronicle, 'wonderful
was the internal organization revealed.
1t had o shell harder even than iron,
within which were arranged, like the
seeds of a pom"grana.e, jewels OF vari-
Gus 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 La
Guara, Venezuela, where "stones the size
of a mans fist are exploded, with loud
noise, from the bosom of the earth, and
scatter about glittering and beautiful
fragments that look like precious gems,
but are of no value"
The Indians of the Amazon also tell
of startling explosions being OCCASION
. ally heard in the Paraguaxo, which they
believe to be male by the mountains in
their efforts to cast forth the precious
stones hidden in their bowels. This no
tion is much the same as that entertained
by the Rocky Mountain Indians seen by
Lewis and Clarke In the Black Hills
the Indians hang offerings on the trees
or place them on rocks in places where
the mysterious thundcrings are heard, to
propitiate, as they say, the "lords Of the
mountains"
1t appears probable that the real cause
of these singular explosions in mountain
regions is the bursting of those rounded,
hollow concretions o; indurated nodules
called geodes. What was observed by
Father Vasconceles in Brazil is good evil
dence of this. The Indians of the Sierra
Piratiniga had, doubtless, satisfied them
selves in regard to the matter ages be-
fore. As the Indians of the Rocky
Mountains believe the sounds to be pro-
duced by the mountains when in labor
to bring forth the precious metals, it is
not unlikely that they may have occas-
ionally seen the glittering crystals strewn
about by the bursting of a geode. 1t is
probable that the air within the gcodc IS
so expanded by heat as to cause an ex-
plosion; and, where the gcode contains
both air and the water of cry>talization,
the growth of the shooting crystals may
so compress the confined air as to induce,
or at least contribute toward the sudden
bursting
About AURORA, and the various places
in the mountains of the southeastern part
of Nevada, geodes are abundant. Some
of those found about Aurora contain
beautiful crystals of vario is colors. In
Nye county, in places in the range of
mountains which lies across the south end
of Smoky VALLEY, the ground is covered
with geodes of all sizes, many of which
are lined with crystals of various hues.
On some of the mountains the ground is
| filled with the nodular masses, and they
are dug out by specimen hunters like so
! many potatoes; indeed, in some countries
they are called potato stones" Nodulcs
of iron are often found in sandstoncs that
are q foot or more in diameter. These
are sometimes hollow, while others are
found to to be filled with an ocherous
earth. The shells are of iron ore. In
| thot nort of the BLACK Hills where Hunt