Abstract
WITH reference to Mr. McKenny Hughes' letter on this subject, which appears in your issue of the 14th ult., and to his suggestion that it “would be of great help if we would get some exact data as to the distance at which the sounds of great guns, of blasting, or of waves, can be proved to have been heard,” I would ask permission to be allowed to cite my experience on the north coast of Spain at the fishing village of Comillas, about twenty-four miles west of Santander. The bay which gives rise to the port is relatively small, and of inconsiderable depth inland; the south-east part of it is limited shoreways by cliffs of limestone, which rise to a height of about 120 feet, and some what overhanging the base or water-line. When the ground-swell—so characteristic of the Bay of Biscay—comes in to this bay, the breakers are very remarkable, and dangerous for small fishing-boats, being relatively high, and succeeding one another with great regularity. They break against the cliff mentioned with a thundering noise, and such that I have frequently heard them at eight miles' distance inland, although high and uneven ground lay between me and the coast, and the weather was relatively calm, so that the sound could hardly be favoured in its transmission by the wind. In stormy weather, and when the weather has been bad seaward, then the waves are even more terrible, and the sound heard still farther away.
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O'REILLY, J. Remarkable Sounds. Nature 53, 101 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/053101d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/053101d0
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