MISCELLANEOUS CURIOSITIES.—(Continued.)

Extraordinary Echoes, and Whispering Places.—These are places where a whisper, or other low sound, may be heard from one part to another, to a great distance. They depend on a principle, that the voice, &c. being applied to one end of an arch, easily passes by repeated reflections to the other.

Hence sound is conveyed from one side of a whispering gallery to the opposite one, without being perceived by those who stand in the middle. The form of a whispering-gallery is that of a segment of a sphere, or the like arched figure. All the contrivance in whispering-places is, that near the person who whispers there may be a smooth wall, arched either cylindrically or elliptically. A circular arch will do, but not so well.

The most considerable whispering-places in England are, the whispering-gallery in the dome of St. Paul’s, London, where the ticking of a watch may be heard from side to side, and a very easy whisper be sent all round the dome. The famous whispering-place in Gloucester Cathedral, is no other than a gallery above the east end of the choir, leading from one side thereof to the other. It consists of five angles and six sides; the middlemost of which is a naked window, yet two whisperers hear each other at the distance of twenty-five yards.

In the Philosophical Transactions for 1746, there is a letter inserted from Robert Southwell, Esq. in which he gives the following account of some extraordinary whispering-places and echoes.—“The best whispering-place in England,” he observes, “I ever saw, was that at Gloucester: but in Italy, in the way to Naples, two days from Rome, I saw, in a inn, a room with a square vault, where a whisper could be easily heard at the opposite corner, but not at all in the side corner that was near to you.

“I saw another, in the way from Paris to Lyons, in the porch of a common inn, which had a round vault: but neither of these was comparable to that of Gloucester; only the difference between these last two was, that to the latter, by holding your mouth to the side of the wall, several could hear you on the other side; the voice being more diffused: but to the former, it being a square room, and you whispering in the corner, it was only audible in the opposite corner, and not to any distance from thence, as to distinction of words. And this property was common to each corner of the room.

“As to Echoes, there is one at Brussels that answers fifteen times: but when at Milan, I went two miles from thence to a nobleman’s palace, to notice one still more extraordinary. The building is of some length in the front, and has two wings projecting forward; so that it wants only one side of an oblong figure. About one hundred paces before the house, there runs a small brook, and that very slowly; over which you pass from the house into the garden. We carried some pistols with us, and, firing one of them, I heard fifty-six reiterations of the noise. The first twenty were with some distinction; but then, as the noise seemed to fly away, and the answers were at a great distance, the repetition was so doubled, that you could hardly count them all, seeming as if the principal sound was saluted in its passage by reports on this and that side at the same time. Some of our company reckoned above sixty reiterations, when a louder pistol was discharged.”

Some persons tell us, that the sound of one musical instrument in this place will seem like a great number of instruments playing together in concert. This echo is of the multiple or tautological kind, returning one sound several times successively, so as to make one clap of the hands seem like many,—one ha, like a laughter,—or one instrument like several of the same kind, imitating each other; and by placing certain echoing bodies in such a manner, that any note played should be returned in thirds, fifths, and eighths, a musical room may be so contrived, that not only one violin played therein shall seem many of the same sort and size, but even a concert of different instruments. Those echoes which return the voice but once are called single; whereof some are tonical, only repeating when modulated into some particular musical tone. Others, that repeat many syllables or words, are termed polysyllabical; of which kind is the fine echo in Woodstock Park, which Dr. Plott assures us will return seventeen syllables distinctly in the day-time, and in the night twenty. Barthius likewise, in his notes on Statius’s Thebais, mentions an echo near Bingeni in Germany, which would repeat words seventeen times, as he himself had proved; and what is very strange in this echo, the person who speaks is scarcely heard at all, but the repetition most clearly, and always in surprising varieties, the echo seeming sometimes to approach nearer, and sometimes to retire to a greater distance. Vitruvius tells us, that in several parts of Greece and Italy there were brazen vessels artfully ranged under the seats of the theatres, to render the sound of the actors’ voices more clear, and make a kind of echo; by which means, of the prodigious number of persons present, every one might hear with ease and pleasure.

Knout.—This is a punishment inflicted in Russia, with a kind of whip called knout, and made of a long strap of leather prepared for this purpose. With this whip the executioners dexterously carry a slip of skin from the neck to the bottom of the back, laid bare to the waist; and repeating their blows, in a little while rend away all the skin off the back in parallel strips. In the common knout, the criminal receives the lashes suspended on the back of one of the executioners; but in the great knout, which is generally used on the same occasions as racking on the wheel was in France, the criminal is raised into the air by means of a pulley fixed to the gallows, and a cord fastened to the two wrists, which are tied together; a piece of wood is placed between his two legs, which are also tied together; and another of a crucial form under his breast. Sometimes his hands are tied behind over his back, and when he is pulled up in this position, his shoulders are dislocated. The executioners can make this punishment more or less cruel; and it is said, they are so dexterous, that when a criminal is condemned to die, they can make him expire either by one or several lashes.

Natural Productions resembling Artificial Compositions.—Some stones are preserved by the curious, for representing distinctly figures traced by Nature alone, and without the aid of Art.

Pliny mentions an agate, in which appeared, formed by the hand of Nature, Apollo amidst the Nine Muses, holding a harp. Majolus assures us, that at Venice another is seen, in which is naturally formed the perfect figure of a man. At Pisa, in the church of St. John, there is a similar natural production, which represents an old hermit in a desert, seated by the side of a stream, and who holds in his hands a small bell, as St. Anthony is commonly painted. In the temple of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, there was formerly, on a white marble, the image of St. John the Baptist, covered with the skin of a camel, with this only imperfection, that nature had given but one leg.—At Ravenna, in the church of St. Vital, a Cordelier is seen on a dusky stone. In Italy, a marble was found, in which a crucifix was so elaborately finished, that there appeared the nails, the drops of blood, and the wounds, as perfectly as the most excellent painter could have performed.—At Sneilberg, in Germany, they found in a mine a certain rough metal, on which was seen the figure of a man, who carried a child on his back.—In Provence, was found, in a mine, a quantity of natural figures of birds, trees, rats, and serpents; and in some places of the western parts of Tartary, are seen on divers rocks, the figures of camels, horses, and sheep. Pancirollus, in his Lost Antiquities, attests, that in a church at Rome, a marble perfectly represented a priest celebrating mass, and raising the host. Paul III. conceiving that art had been used, scraped the marble to discover whether any painting had been employed; but nothing of the kind was discovered.

There is a species of the orchis found in the mountainous parts of Lincolnshire, Kent, &c. Nature has formed a bee, apparently feeding in the breast of the flower, with so much exactness, that it is impossible at a very small distance to distinguish the imposition. Hence the plant derives its name, and is called the Bee Flower. This is elegantly expressed by Langhorne, who thus notices its appearance:

See on that flow’ret’s velvet breast,
How close the busy vagrant lies!
His thin-wrought plume, his downy breast,
Th’ ambrosial gold that swells his thighs.
Perhaps his fragrant load may bind
His limbs; we’ll set the captive free:—
I sought the living Bee to find,
And found the picture of a Bee.

Remarkable Lamps.—Cedrenus makes mention of a lamp, which, together with an image of Christ, was found at Edessa, in the reign of the Emperor Justinian. It was set over a certain gate there, and privily enclosed, as appeared by the date of it, soon after Christ was crucified: it was found burning, as it had done for five hundred years before, by the soldiers of Cosroes, king of Persia, by whom also the oil was taken out, and cast into the fire; which occasioned such a plague, as brought death upon almost all his forces.—At the demolition of our monasteries here in England, there was found, in the supposed monument of Constantius Chlorus, (father to the Great Constantine,) a lamp, which was thought to have continued burning there ever since his burial, which was about three hundred years after Christ. The ancient Romans used in that manner to preserve lights in their sepulchres a long time, by the oil of gold, resolved by art into a liquid substance.

Perpetual Fire.—In the peninsula of Abeheron, in the province of Schirwan, formerly belonging to Persia, but now in Russia, there is found a perpetual, or as it is there called, an eternal fire. It rises, and has risen from time immemorial, from an irregular orifice in the earth, of about twelve feet in depth, with a constant flame. The flame rises to the height of six or eight feet, unattended with smoke, and it yields no smell. The aperture, which is about one hundred and twenty feet in width, consists of a mass of rock, ever retaining the same solidity and the same depth. The finest turf grows about the borders, and at the distance of two toises, are two springs of water. The neighbouring inhabitants have a sort of veneration for this fire, which they accompany with religious ceremonies.

Magical Drum.—This is an instrument of superstition, used in Lapland, which is thus described by Schoeffer, in his History of that country: It is made of beech, pine, or fir, split in the middle, and hollowed on the flat side where the drum is to be made. The hollow is of an oval figure, and is covered with a skin clean dressed, and painted with figures of various kinds, such as stars, suns and moons, animals and plants, and even countries, lakes, and rivers; and of later days, since the preaching of Christianity among them, the acts and sufferings of our Saviour and his apostles are often added among the rest. All these figures are separated by lines into three regions or clusters. There is, besides these parts of the drum, an index and a hammer. The index is a bundle of grass or iron rings, the largest of which has a hole in its middle, and the smaller ones are hung to it. The hammer, or drumstick, is made of the horn of a reindeer; and with this they beat the drum so as to make these rings move, they being laid on the top for that purpose. In the motion of these rings about the pictures figured on the drum, they fancy to themselves some prediction in regard to the things they inquire about. What they principally search into by this instrument, are three things: 1. What sacrifices will prove most acceptable to their gods: 2. What success they shall have in their occupations, as hunting, fishing, curing diseases, and the like: and 3. What is done in places remote from them. On these occasions they use several peculiar ceremonies, and place themselves in various odd postures as they beat the drum, which influences the rings to the one or the other side, and to come nearer to the one or the other set of figures. And when they have done this, they have a method of calculating a discovery, which they keep as a great secret, but which seems merely the business of the imagination in the diviner or magician.

An Extraordinary Cannon.—At Kubberpore-na-Jeal, in India, there is a cannon two hundred and thirteen inches long, sixty-six inches round the muzzle, and eighteen inches round the calibre. It has five, and had originally six, equidistant rings, by which it was lifted up. This gun is called by the natives, Jaun Kushall, or the destroyer of life, and its casting and position are attributed to the doctas or divinities, though its almost obliterated Persian inscriptions declare its formation by human means. But what is most extraordinary about it is, that two peepul trees have grown both cannon and carriage into themselves. Fragments of the iron, a spring, one of the linches, and part of the wood-work, protrude from between the roots and bodies of these trees; but the trees alone entirely support the gun, one of the rings of which, and half of its whole length, are completely hidden between, and inside their bark and trunks. A more curious sight, or a cannon more firmly fixed, though by the mere gradual growth of two trees, cannot well be imagined. The Indians assert that it was only once fired, and then sent the ball twenty-four miles!—Asiatic Journal.

Old Bread.—Bartholinus assures us, that in Norway the inhabitants make bread which keeps thirty or forty years; and that they are there fonder of their old hard bread, than others are of new or soft; since the older it is, the more agreeable it grows. For their great feasts, particular care is taken to have the oldest bread; so that at the christening of a child, they have usually bread which had been baked perhaps at the christening of his grandfather! It is made by a mixture of barley and oatmeal, baked between two hollow stones.

The following is said to be A Substitute for Spectacles.—A man, especially if accustomed to spend his time among books, would be much to be pitied, when his sight begins to fail, could he not in a great measure restore it by the aid of spectacles; but there are some men whose sight cannot be aided by the use either of convex or concave glasses. The following method, adopted by one of these to aid his sight, is certainly worthy of notice. When about sixty years of age, this man had almost entirely lost his sight, seeing nothing but a kind of thick mist, with little black specks which appeared to float in the air. He knew not any of his friends; he could not even distinguish a man from a woman; nor could he walk in the streets without being led. Glasses were of no use to him; the best print, seen through the bell spectacles, seemed to him like a daubed paper. Wearied with this melancholy state, he thought of the following expedient. He procured some spectacles with very large rings; and taking out the glasses, substituted in each circle a conic tube of black Spanish copper. Looking through the large end of the cone, he could read the smallest print placed at its other extremity. These tubes were of different lengths, and the openings at the end were also of different sizes; the smaller the aperture, the better could he distinguish the smallest letters; the larger the aperture, the more words or lines it commanded; and consequently, the less occasion was there for moving the head and the hand in reading. Sometimes he used one eye, sometimes the other, alternately relieving each; for the rays of the two eyes could not unite upon the same object when thus separated by two opaque tubes. The thinner these tubes, the less troublesome are they. They must be totally blackened within, so as to prevent all shining, and they should be made to lengthen or contract, and enlarge or reduce the aperture, at pleasure. When he placed convex glasses in these tubes, the letters indeed appeared larger, but not so clear and distinct as through the empty tube; he also found the tubes more convenient when not fixed in the spectacle rings; for when they hung loosely, they could be raised or lowered with the hand, and one or both might be used, as occasion required. It is almost needless to add, that the material of the tubes is of no importance, and that they may be made of iron or tin as well as of copper, provided the insides of them be sufficiently blackened.—See La Nouvell, BigarurÉ for February, 1754, or Monthly Magazine for April, 1799.

Winter Sleep of Animals and Plants.—The winter sleep is a very singular property of animals and plants; and, though it occurs daily before our eyes, we are not able to explain the phenomena with which it is attended. In cold countries, many animals, on the approach of winter, retire to their subterraneous abodes, in which they bury themselves under the snow, where they remain five or six months without nourishment or motion; nay, almost without circulation of their blood, which flows only sluggishly, and in the widest vessels. Their perspiration is almost imperceptible; but still they lose something by it, as they enter their winter quarters in very good condition, and are exceedingly thin when they return from them.Some animals enjoy their winter sleep under the earth, and others are concealed beneath the snow; some for the same purpose creep into the holes of rocks, and others under stones, or the bark of trees.

Plants have their winter sleep also; for, during the period of winter, their sap flows towards the roots, and the circulation of it, which is very slow, takes place only in the widest vessels. Were the expansion of the sap in winter as considerable as in summer, it would burst all the vessels, on being frozen.

Some observers have endeavoured to prove that this singular circumstance is merely accidental, and, indeed, no difference is found in the internal organization of those animals which have winter sleep, and those which have not. It is very remarkable, that this property belongs in general to animals of prey. As these have far stronger powers of digestion, and stronger digestive juices, it would appear that abstinence from food for several months would to them be hardly possible.

The common bear, the bat, and the hedgehog, have winter sleep, but the white bear has not. As the latter is secured from the cold by his long hair, he finds nourishment in the dead whales and seals which are cast on shore by the waves.

The earthworms have winter sleep; but aquatic worms very seldom. Insects, as well as their larvÆ, have winter sleep. Butterflies may be often seen fluttering about in the warm days of spring, after having spent the whole winter in that condition. Amphibious animals have winter sleep, those which live merely in the ocean excepted. Few birds, on the other hand, are exposed to this state. The greater part of these, on the approach of winter, retire to a milder climate, where they can find more abundant nourishment. In Iceland, the sheep have winter sleep. In that country they are suffered to range in perfect freedom. In the winter season, therefore, they may be found buried under the snow, where it would be impossible for them to remain, were they not in that condition.