The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-08-15
STRANGE SOUNDS.
GUNS OF BURRlSAUL AND OTHER
MYSTIFYING PHENOMENA.

Noises Mudo by Natural Causes For Which
No Explanation Has Ever Been Found.
Famous Sounds In Various Parts of the
Earth Have Scared Many.
Of strange sounds which probably de-
pend on meteorological or other natural
causes, one of the most remarkable has
long been known as 1.-THE guns of Bur-
risaul, +" but though its causes have long
been debated no accurate explanation
has been given, so far as we are aware,
that is thoroughly satisfactory. The
Sunderbunds-as the delta of the Ganges
in native dialect is called-is covered
with vast and luxuriant jungle of
marshy vegetation. One of the stations
is named Burrisaul. From here, in the
rainy season, have long been heard mys-
terious sounds resembling the discharge
of artillery, and therefore popularity
named 'the guns of Burrisaul."
Only heard i'll the rainy season and
from tho southwark, they have been
heard 100 miles off, yet on the coast it.
self they appear still farther south. The
sounds resemble the booming of cannon.
Mussulman and Hndoo superstitions
have each associated the sounds with
their religious traditions. Others have
thought the sounds We're produced by the
breaking of the sea on an island in the
bay of Bengal. But where2 That some
atmospheric or meteorological cause is
the explanation is all that can be said
after hearing all arguments.
A much humber yet ancient instance
of great local interest used to exist, we
believe, at Baddeley, in the New forest,
in the shape Oft groaning tree Whether
1t still lives and groans we are uncer-
tain, but it is said TO have uttered mys-
terious and lugubrious sounds at certain
times, probably dependent on wind or
weather. but full of omen and import to
past generations. Indeed in the various
mysteries which, despite fin de steele
acuteness, still surround us, eerie noises
have always played a most conspicuous
part, whether out of doors or within
ancient houses. Instances of the latter,
indeed, abound. Some of the most thrill
ing of incxplicable ghost stories turn
not on anything which has appalled, tho
eyes, but has distilled horror" through
the ears. 1t is, we believe, in East An
glia that the shrieks heard from time to
time round certain pits have long been
q tradition in which a female phantom
has part.
The drummer of Tedworth's" phan.
tom sounds are SO well known from
Aubrey and more modern DISORDERS as
only to need allusion, but we may here
say that, according to communication
in a popular periodical some few years
back, similar sounds had recently, COM
paratively speaking, been heard in the
locality, and by people of most practical
disposition. These may be called phan.
tom sounds. Returning again to those
which hover on the border line between
the natural and inexplicable, there is the
wild strain as of weird music which has
been heard aboard ships when getting
within tho circle of a Mozambique cy-
clone.
One of the same kind, formerly mys-
terious and thrilling enough, has been
resolved into natural one. Early tray
elers through the primeval forests Of
Brazil-stin among the few unexplored
places of the globe-were astonished and
awed to hear the distant resonant sound
of a bell pealing from the depths Of the
woods, which certainly had no building
and for ages had known no human foot
step. Many q legend was woven rouad
the strange sound. Ultimately it was
discovered to be the note of the bell bird.
There are, however, few mysterious
sounds which llaye been as satisfactorily
as this. For instance, there is
the legend Of the sounds heard at times
on the plains of Marathon, the clash of
weapons, the snorting of horses, the
shouting Of the slayers and screeching
of the slain," which recall to memory
the famous battle that lives so much
moro yiyidly than many modern ones in
the history of the world. OF course
there are many instances Of sounds
which, at first mysterious, become 50 re-
ally from the distance over which they
but these must be distinguished
from those which are onr theme.
One of the most interesting examples
rests ON the authority of the late Sir Ed
mund Head, who remembered when a
boy going to church on the famous
Waterloo Sunday" June 19, 1915, at
tAAti III lANHIH 1llH ldllltA illlti lie, Oh
arriving at the church at l a. M, found
TO their surprise the congregation out
side listening intently to the faint sound
IS Of distant cannon coming from the
east. Afterward ii was ascertained that
Napoleon having, on the flor HIM un-
fortunate advice of his artillery officers,
who pleaded the state of the ground,
waited till II to commence his fire, the
irst French gun was fired rs the Nivelles
church clock struck IL. Nor was Hytho
he only place where the French cannon
we're heard in England.
Here, however, is fact dependent on
he by no means reIparkabla axiom that
ound undor certain conditions travels
normous distances. But the sounds Of
Which we speak for the most part have
puzzled all who have attempted to ex-
,lain them and lie indeed in that vague
egion which is inexplicable. Suchis the
onnd Of the 'Airlie drum" such arc tile
vailing of the banshee III some parts of
York Post.
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