The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-01
NATURE AS A PUZZLE MAKER.
Some of Her COnundrums That Set
Folk to Guessing without Result.

some OF Her COnundrumS Inar SET
Folk to Guessing without Result.
Nature sometimes does things with
the evident intention of just puzzling
people. For years she has been pro-
pounding many little standing jokes
and conundrums, and asking people to
guess at the answers.
Some of the little problems, for the
solution of which no prizes is offered,
are scattered along the Atlantic coast
in out-of-the-way places, and are only
heard Of now and then when some one
calls attention to the fact that an an
swer to the conundrum is still await
ed.
One example is afforded by the Sing
ing sands of Pascagoula.' Pascagoula
lies on the shores of the Gulf of Mex
leo in the southern part of Mexico.
The warm waters of the Gulf wash
gently up on a smooth and shining
beach, which looks like any other
smooth and shining beach in that re-
gion. But the sands of Pascagoula
beach have properties which the sands
of other beaches do not possess-they
are tuneful and can sing.
At odd intervals, when the tide Is
out, the moon shining and the lazy
swell of the summer seas break gent
ly on the shore, a strange, sweet mel
ody arises from the beach, and all the
grains of sand seem, like the morning
stars, to sing together.
This music is not lively, nor yet Is it
very mournful-just pleasant, dreamy
sound of singing, which wells up from
the beach and steals along the shore.
There have been various guesses at
the cause of this phenomenon, but, so
far, no one has been abe to give
wholly satisfactory answer to this
charming little conundruln PROFOUND
ca by nature.
A more eruesome riddle Is offered
by the I'i,lst-ne Light, which has been
celebrated in verse by Whittier. or
late years the light, which used to be
seen at intervals off the coast of Block
Island, has not been observed. or IL
observed it has not been reported. .
Native Block islanders who see the
light are chary of speaking about it
to strangers, for fear of being laughed
at. But there are well-authenticated
instances of the Palatine Light having
been seen not so very long ago. and
any night the passengers on a Fall
River steamer may chance to see 1t
glowing beneath the bluffs of Block
| Island.
immigrants from the Palatinate of the
Rhine was decoyed on the rocks by
false lights and then set on fire by the
wreckers, and that the Palatine Light
is the phantom of the old ship, come
| back to burn again as a perpetual re-
minder to the people of Block Island
of the sins of their ancestors.
So the legend says: and the people
who do not believe in phantom shios
no cnnobt n vain for
reasonable explanation of the phenom-
enon.
The light is usually described as
consisting of three pyramidal flames,
which seem to be lowering over the
surface of the water, though one &C
count by an eyewitness compares the
light with that of a fire seen through
the window of n house at a distance.
The light, according to the best ac-
counts, appears either just before or
Just after a northeast storm. There
seems to be no doubt that the Palatine
Light is a real thing, and nature is
still inviting answers to the riddle of II.
A third puzzle of the sort, which
may be mentioned, and which still
awaits solving, is rather bolsterous
one. Nature has been uttering 1t ever
since the white man came to the Con-
necticut valley and nobody knows
how long before.
1t is known as the 'Moodus Noises
and consists of a series of groanings
and quakings, accompanied by the rat
Ting of chains and sounds like the dis
charge of firearms.
All these amazing noises issue from
a peaceful looking hill near East Had
dam, Conn The hill is like any other
New England hin, and no one has ever
been able to discover why or how,
every two or three years, it takes on
so and disturbs the country for miles
around.