MUSICAL SANDS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 38, 8 November 1937, Page 9

MUSICAL SANDS

"Roaring" and "Singing" Kalahari SCIENTIST'S EXPERIMENTS "Singing" sand can retain its musical power when transporled from the desert and taken in a bag to a city laboratory, according to Mr. A. D. Lewis, a South African scientist, says the Morning I'ost. But it will lose its power if kep.t for long with the top of the bag open, although this musical quality can be restored by heatitig in an oven. Mr. Lewis' investigations have beeu made xvith tlie famous "roaring sau^s" of the. south-east corner of the Esls-

hari desert. In a report, eummarised ,in Nature, he describes two distinct hinds of noise which the sand makes — a "roa?" caused.by pushing the sand forward in a heap, and a "hum",by keeping the sand movxng slowly down the slope where these musical sands are to be found. The roar, he states, is heard most intensely along the steep south ern face of th© sand-dunes, sounding at 600 yards distance like the rumbling of distant' thunder. Merely moving the fingets up and down the sand produces a roar, the upward motion giving a higher note than the downward. One ,of the mysteries of "singing" sand is that tliere may be nothing in its appearance to distinguish jt from ordinary sand, lying under apparently similar conditions only a short distance axvay. Examination of tlie Kalahari roaring sands, ' he records, suggests

that its grains may be more rounded and more uniform in size than those of "silent" sdnd, "Singing" sand was at: one time beiieved to be confined to .the island of Eigg in the lnner Hebrides. Professor Bolton, of Hartford, Connecticut, and other acientists have, however, ; shown that there are quite a number of 'places m Europe and America where it may be found. Both prolonged rubbing and wetting have beqn, reported as destroying the sand's capacity for song.