“Fred. Arrow.”
The inclosure referred to was notes from Captain Atkins and Mr. Edwards. Captain Atkins writes thus:
“As arranged, I came down here by the mail express, meeting Mr. Edwards at Cannon Street. We put up at the Dover Castle, and next morning at 7 I was awoke by sounds of the siren. On jumping up I discovered that the long-looked-for fog had arrived, and that the ‘Argus’ had left her moorings.
“However, had I been on board, the instructions I left with Troughton (the master of the ‘Argus’) could not have been better carried out. About noon the fog cleared up, and the ‘Argus’ returned to her moorings, when I learned that they had taken both siren and horn sounds to a distance of 11 miles from the station, where they dropped a buoy. This I knew to be correct, as I have this morning recovered the buoy, and the distances both in and out agree with Troughton’s statement. I have also been to the Varne light-ship (12-3/4 miles from the Foreland), and ascertained that during the fog of Saturday forenoon they ‘distinctly’ heard the sounds.”
Mr. Edwards, who was constantly at my side during our summer and autumn observations, and who is thoroughly competent to form a comparative estimate of the strength of the sounds, states that those of the 7th were “extraordinarily loud,” both Captain Atkins and himself being awoke by them. He does not remember ever before hearing the sounds so loud in Dover; it seemed as though the observers were close to the instruments.
Other days of fog preceded this one, and they were all days of acoustic transparency, the day of densest fog being acoustically the clearest of all.
The results here recorded are of the highest importance, for they bring us face to face with a dense fog and an actual fog-signal, and confirm in the most conclusive manner the previous observations. The fact of Captain Atkins and Mr. Edwards being awakened by the siren proves, beyond all our previous experience, its power during this dense fog.
It is exceedingly interesting to compare the transmission of sound on February 7th with its transmission on October 14th. The wind on both days had the same strength and direction. My notes of the observations show the latter to have been throughout a day of extreme optical clearness. The range was 10 miles. During the fog of February 7th the “Argus” heard the sound at 11 miles; and it was also heard at the Varne light-vessel, which is 12-3/4 miles from the Foreland.
It is also worthy of note that through the same fog the sounds were well heard at the South Sand Head light-vessel, which is in the opposite direction from the South Foreland, and was actually behind the siren. For this important circumstance is to be borne in mind: on February 7th the siren happened to be pointed, not toward the “Argus,” but toward Dover. Had the yacht been in the axis of the instrument it is highly probable that the sound would have been heard all the way across to the coast of France.