Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/813

Rh the music will instantly cease, to begin again as soon as all is quiet.

A few days ago I was told, by a lady residing here, that one night this summer, while rowing upon the river, she heard the music. "As we approached the sound," she said, "it seemed to go away from us, but we continued to follow it even some distance up the bayou on the other side of the river, when, for fear of losing ourselves in the intricate windings of the bayou, we left it."

My friend, the late Rev. R. G. Hinsdale, of Biloxi, has told me that at that place there are three different kinds of this music heard, viz.: the first is like that I have described; the second is a quick, sharp note sounded at different intervals, like this:

the third is another note repeated twice, as follows:

As I have before hinted, I have no theory of my own to offer in explanation of the strange phenomenon known as the mysterious music of Pascagoula, but shall merely give the theory that was advanced by Darwin years ago. In his "Descent of Man," page 347 (revised edition), Darwin says, "The last point which need be noticed is that fishes are known to make various noises, some of which are described as being musical. Dr. Du-fossé, who has especially attended to this subject, says that the sounds are voluntarily produced in several ways by different fishes: by the friction of the pharyngeal bones; by the vibration of certain muscles attached to the swim-bladder, which serves as a resounding-board; and by the vibration of the intrinsic muscles of the swim-bladder. By this latter means the Trigla produces pure and long-drawn sounds which range over nearly an octave. But the most interesting case for us is that of two species of Ophidium, in which the males alone are provided with a sound-producing apparatus, consisting of small movable bones, with proper muscles, in connection with the swim-bladder. The drumming of the Umbrinas in the European seas is said to be audible from a depth of twenty fathoms, and the fishermen of Rochelle assert that 'the males alone make the noise during the spawning-time, and that it is possible, by imitating it, to take them without bait.'"

Whether or not these fishes inhabit or visit the waters of the