SOME CURIOUS FACTS CONCERNING HEARING.
An inquiry was recently made in London as to the greatest distance at which a man's voice could be heard, leaving, of course, the telephone out of consideration. The reply was most interesting, and was as follows: Eighteen miles is the longest distance on record at which a man's voice has been heard. This occurred in the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, where one man shouting the name "Bob" at one end his voice was plainly heard at the other end, which is eighteen miles away. Lieutenant Foster, on Parry's third arctic expedition, found that he could converse with a man across the harbor of Port Bowen, a distance of 6696 feet, or about one mile and a quarter: and Sir John Franklin said that he conversed with ease at a distance of more than a mile. Dr. Young records that at Gibraltar the human voice has been heard at a distance of ten miles.
Sound has remarkable force in water. Colladon, by experiments made in the Lake of Geneva, estimated that a bell submerged in the sea might be heard a distance of more than sixty miles. Franklin says that he heard the striking together of two stones in the water half a mile away. Over water or a surface of ice sound is propagated with great clearness and strength. Dr. Hutton relates that on a quiet part of the Thames near Chelsea he could hear a person read distinctly at the distance of 140 feet, while on the land the same could only be heard at 76 feet. Professor Tyndall, when on Mont Blanc, found the report of a pistol-shot no louder than the pop of a champagne bottle. Persons in a balloon can hear voices from the earth a long time after they themselves are inaudible to people below.
ON BOARD THE ARK.
BY ALBERT LEE.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Lion bowed in a dignified manner to the Gopher, and rapped on the table again to bring the Parrots to order, and then the Gopher said, very slowly and deliberately:
"When is a door not a door?"
The animals stared at one another, and whispered, and gazed up and down the table as if they thought they might possibly derive inspiration from the dishes. Tommy and the ex-Pirate said not a word. Presently the Gopher repeated:
"When is a door not a door?"
But no one could guess, and after a few moments more of anxious and strained silence the Gopher said:
"I suppose I shall have to tell you. A door is not a door when it is ajar."
THE ANIMALS ROARED WITH LAUGHTER AT THE GOPHER'S JOKE.
The animals fairly roared and shrieked with laughter. They bellowed and howled and pounded on the table, and the Gopher became so much affected with appreciation of his own wit that he fell over backwards, and almost stunned a Newfoundland puppy who was trying to get his nose above the table to see what it was all about. Tommy had never realized before what the expression "to roar with laughter" really signified, and he concluded he never wanted to experience such a realization again. The noise was so great that he had to put his fingers to his ears. When the merriment had partially subsided, the little boy leaned over to the ex-Pirate and said:
"I have heard that joke before; haven't you?"
"Indeed I have," answered the ex-Pirate, "many a time."
"It's an awfully old one, isn't it?"
"I always suspected it was first gotten off in the Ark," said the ex-Pirate, shaking his head knowingly; "but I did not know the Gopher was responsible for it."
By this time the animals had recovered themselves, and some were shouting to the Gopher for more jokes. He got up and protested that he did not know any more; and then, suddenly pointing to the ex-Pirate, he exclaimed:
"He's a funny one. He can recite things!"
Thereupon the animals all gazed at the ex-Pirate, and the Lion said, "Recite things."
The ex-Pirate never needed much urging to do this sort of thing, and so when Tommy whispered to him to read the seventeenth chapter of his autobiography which he knew his friend had in his pocket, and of which the little boy had only heard the first few lines, the ex-Pirate arose, and, bowing in his usual way to all his hearers, he pulled his manuscript from his coat and began to read:
The following day the sun rose up as usual from the East.
The sea was calm, the sky was clear, the stormy winds had ceased;
The Black Avenger sped along before a gentle breeze,
And the starboard watch loafed on the deck in true piratic ease.
I took my breakfast down below, and when I came on deck
I looked about, and far away I saw a little speck
Upon the blue horizon, and I knew it was a sail.
For, in matters of this nature, my eyesight could not fail.
I called my swarthy Bo's'n, and I said to him, said I:
"If we don't overtake that ship, I'll know the reason why;
If we don't overtake her ere the sun shines overhead
I'll cut the whiskers off the crew before I go to bed!"
The Bo's'n nodded cheerfully and swore a fearful oath,
(He called upon the Sun and Moon, and scandalized them both,)
And then he hitched his trousers up and piped his whistle shrill,
And made the loafing pirates heave the halyards with a will.
The Black Avenger sped along and ploughed the boiling sea,
The rigging creaked, the sails stood out, the foam flew fast and free.
The pirates gathered on the deck and buckled on their swords,
Rolled up their sleeves, and combed their beards, and spoke piratic words.
But suddenly the Bo's'n came a-rushing up to me,
His face was pale, his nose was red, he spoke: "Good sir," said he,
"Yon vessel is from Switzerland, and, verily, I fear
We'll find she is not what she seems, as soon as we get near;
She looks to me as though she might—might be a privateer"
(But when he found she wasn't one, he shed a private tear.)
Said I: "Load up the cannons, boys, with ten-pound cannon-balls;
I care not what yon ship may be, into my hands she falls!
We'll take her, and we'll take her guns, her captain, and her crew,
Her cook, her cabin steward, and her precious cargo, too!"
So the Gunner and the Gunner's Mate they lifted up the hatch,
And they called upon the pirates who formed the starboard watch
To help them lift the cannon-balls from out the magazine
Where all the cannon-balls were kept, wrapped up in bombazine.
But presently the Gunner's Mate came rushing to the rail,
His hair was standing up on end, his face was very pale,
He cried: "Oh, Captain, woe is me, no cannon-balls are left;
Of shot and shell of every kind the magazine's bereft.
There's not a piece of shrapnel, no canister or grape,
There's not enough of buckshot to kill a good-sized ape!"
The Bo's'n, who stood near at hand, gazed sadly at us both,
And then he pulled his pistols out and swore a mighty oath:
"How shall we take yon Switzer ship," he said, "without a shell?"
"We've got to fight," I answered him. "Won't cheese do just as well?"
For, two days previously, you know, we met a brigantine
From Amsterdam for Zululand, by name the Bandoline,
And in her hold she carried a fine cargo, if you please,
Consisting of a hundred thousand dozen Edam cheese.
We took a hundred dozen and stowed them on the poop
Between the after cannon and the Captain's chicken-coop.
(The crew had used the cheeses and some bottles from the galley,
The day before, to improvise a sort of bowling-alley.)
Said I: "We'll take these Edam cheese and put them in the guns,
And shoot them at the Switzer ship until she sinks or runs;
For surely such proceeding will be worse than shot or shell,
Just think of being hit with cheese—say nothing of the smell!"
The pirates laughed and vowed my scheme would give them lots of fun;
And soon a big, red, round, Dutch cheese was rammed in every gun.
It was not long before the Black Avenger came abreast
And hailed the ship from Switzerland with true piratic zest;
But not a Switzer said a word, nor made they any sign,
But all the sailors on the ship were ranged along in line,
And leaned upon the starboard rail, with sunken pallid cheeks
As though they had not tasted food for six or seven weeks.
The swarthy Bo's'n hailed again, and as no answer came
The Gunner's Mate averred it was high time to start the game.
I spoke the word, and seven guns all loaded up with cheese
Were fired at the Switzer ship as nicely as you please;
And then a second volley went, and soon again a third.
And when the smoke had cleared away we saw what had occurred.
Each cheese had hit the Switzer ship and flattened on her decks,
The Switzer men were wading in the cheese up to their necks.
We waited then to see what sort of fighting they would make,
And wondered how much cheese these Switzer sailor-men could take.
But as we waited silence came all o'er the Switzer craft,
And not a seaman seemed to move, or forward or abaft.
I called the Bo's'n to the bridge, and "Take the gig," said I;
"Go board yon ship, where all is still, and learn the reason why."
The Bo's'n quick got in the gig with sixteen of the crew,
He took along a cannon and an Edam cheese or two,
And half an hour he was gone, then slowly rowed he back;
He said to me: "Good Captain," he sobbed, "alas, alack!
Upon that floating vessel there's no one left to fight;
There's not a living creature, not a living thing in sight.
No man remains to give reply to any kind of question:
The Switzers ate up all the cheese, and died of indigestion."
There was another great demonstration of approval as soon as the ex-Pirate had concluded, but Tommy paid little attention to the noise this time, because he had become somewhat accustomed to it.
"You see," said the ex-Pirate, apologetically, "I could not very well read anything like that—all about cheese—in the presence of the Welsh Rabbit; could I?"
"Of course not," agreed Tommy; "but is it true that—"
"I say," interrupted the Gopher, leaning in front of Tommy and addressing himself to the ex-Pirate; "I know another joke now. I know what the Bo's'n said to the Gunner's Mate when he told him to shoot at the ship."
"Well, what did he tell him?" asked the ex-Pirate, incautiously.
"Cheese it!" shouted the Gopher, who was immediately seized with such a violent fit of laughter that he fell under the table, and almost buried himself under the pile of broken soup plates.