The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-26
THE MUSIC OF NATURE.
INSTRUMENTS WHICH PRODUCE
PLEASANT SOUNDS.

Sands and What Causes the Tones.
The Singing Statues of Memnon.
Notes From Running Brooks-Bse
and Mosquito Wings.
From the Washington Star.
The air is full Of sound. Even on che
stillest night, When not a breath Of air
seems TO move, there is sound audible by
closest attention, but not noticeable, be-
cause the ear has been 30 accustomed to
loud, everyday confusion The air Is full
of minute sound waves, coming from every
direction, and nature is constantly
engaged In producing them. Were this
not so. were there absolutely no sound
which we are aware Of without detect
ing 1t, the silence would be abb
solutely intolerable. Perpetual sound Is as
much a constituent Of nature as light or
heat, and like them IL is being produced. in
cessantly set In motion. There is a tremor
and with 1t q sounding over all creation. 1t
rises into the uppermose air; II is in the
caverns Of the earth. IL comes from every
forming frost crystal, and from every gos-
ssmer wing and thy trumpet, aud, once
sent forth, goes on and on aud never ceases.
Really, there is a great noise in the silent
night OF which we would be well aware were
it suddenly 70 cease.
MUSICAL SANDS.
The musical sands have attracted much
attention from the curious circumstances
no less than the beauty Of their tinkling
notes These stands are found In occasional
patches along the sea shores, of which there
are said to be forty-seven in the United
States and many others In different parts of
the world. Musical sand hills arc found in
some Of the deserts. At Studland Bay,
England, there is a patch few hundred
feet square that gives out clear, ringing
note as high as A aud F altissimo. It is so
clear and well defined that its place In the
scale may be definitely determined. It Is a
singular circumstance that these sands are
IL spots or patches In midst Of vast
stretches Of the same kind appar-
emily, which are entirely non-musical The
material, quartz, is highly sonorous, like
glass, and needs only TO be properly rubbed
to give out a musical note. When one walks
across these sands the tread Of the foot
causes friction among the grains, millions
in number, and this friction causes a sing
ing. just as land on the same principle that
a tinger-bowl responds to the rubbing OF a
moistened finger. Each grain sounds. but
alone could not be heard, while the myriads
Of sounds in unison may be plainly heard
even at a considerable distance.
On the flanks OF Mount Sinai there Is a
sand hill of similar kind, where the down.
pouring of the sand causes 4 sweet, tinkling
music which the Bedouins, dlsregarding
the true source, attribute 60 a wooden gong
struck at che time of prayers by the monks
In some under earth monastery. The winds
OF the desert replace the sands, which grad
ually pour down again at angle of some 81.
keeping up the perpetual resonance.
The Eolian harp, though constructed by
man, is played upon by nature. Steel wires
are strung over thin slab of rock placed
over slight excavation In the ground, thus
forming the strings and sounding board of
the piano. There IS, however, this differ
ence: The wires are fastened very firmly,
and may be ten TO fifteen feet long. They
are keyed 20 true notes, and the wind
sweeping over them vibrates according to
its strength, one or another octave.
Thus the music varies greatly, and ia
Italy. where it is most in vogue, there Is
something weird and exquisitely beautiful
in the sounds proceeding froIn some sylvan
retreat
Another instance. famous in antiquity,
was the singing at sunrise of the huge
statues of Memnon on the Nile. The Egyp-
tians believed the water to be supernat-
ural; the Greeks In their skeptical way be-
lieved it to be imposture, while the undis-
puted fact Of tones being emitted has been
lately explained by the irregular expansion
OF the upper parts of the fractured stone,
first touched by the rays of the sun, and
grating against the lower courses How
ever. ii is said to have been a series of beau
ttful tones that greeted Apollo at his rising,
and the priests made the most of the Cir
cumstance with the people.
FROM BROOKS.
The exquisite music Of brooks or running
and FLASHING water has been the subject Of
careful and interesting inquiry. The first
fTnnraaefnn fe that the yntTsf0 NJ r,,pu{,rr
water Is but a medley Of rushing sounds,
whereas ii is found that they give forth dis
tinct musical notes This again illustrates
what has been said-the ear is pleasurably
affected without Analysing what it hears
until express and careful attention is
turned to the subject, and hence it Is the
music heard in the midst Of the rushing
that makes 1t what 1t is and affords such
delicate pleasure It Is now known that
The sounds are caused by the bursting of a
myriad bubbles, no one of which would be
audible, but collectively produce a discernt-
BILE aud pleasing effect
With mis- usual propensity TO invent, DR..
Franklin contrived harmonicum consist
ing of series of bell glasses forming
vibratory surfaces from large to small. that
IS, from the low to the high notes. These
revolved on a shaft propelled by a treadle,
the lower edges dipping in water in the
tank below. The performer, using fingers
and thumbs of both hands, touched the
moistened edges as they revolved, thus pro-
ducing tune. The vibration of glass gives
an exceptionally pure tone.
IN CAvERNs.
OF all the sounds Of nature none are said
to be more awe-insplring than that heard In
the vast cavern Of the island of Hayti when
occasionally In its dark recesses some piece
of rock falls from the roof. There the sounds.
unable TO escape and become dissipated in
the outer air, 90 on reverberating through
halls and passages, broken into a thousand
echoes, disappearing and returning again
and again. with suggestions Of Stygian hor-
rors.
Akin TO the efforts of men is the orchestra
of insects. This instrument is similar to
the violin. The inner surface OF the bow Is
covered, on the legs Of the grasshopper,
with barbs: When hei wants TO
perform a solo he bows the lower edge of his
wing, which is provided with somewhat
harder lining, while the remainder Of the
wing affords sonorous membrane not dts
similar to the belly Of the violin or the
sounding board Of piano.
THE LoCUsT's WIND INSTRUMENT.
The i7-year locust, however, plays on
wind instrument, or rather on several. Over
each air aperture is stretched a membrane
having longitudinal slit, which is mus
cularly controlled SO as to hold the lips of
the covering more or less closely together,
The air rushing through under one or the
other condition of the membrane makes
variety OF musical notes. This contains the
! v,Vivnoipla Of {xA t,eN