Barisal Guns

Abstract

IN reference to Sir Edward Fry's letter in NATURE for May 7, a fuller account of the mysterious sounds heard at Jebel Musa, and Jebel Nagus, in the Peninsula of Sinai, will be found in Palmer's “Desert of the Exodus,” vol. i. pp. 217, 251. The former, which an Arab legend attributes to a fairy maiden, who fires off a gun one day in every year to give notice of her presence, “are,” says the writer, “in all probability caused by masses of rock becoming detached by the action of frost, and rolling with a mighty crash over the precipice” (of 3000 feet) “into the valley below.” The sounds at Jebel Nagus, which have also a legend connected with them, are undoubtedly due to the friction of rolling sand. From experiments made by the explorers, the degree of coarseness of the sand, the angle of inclination of the slope, and temperature, seem to be the controlling conditions.