Brontides.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 1 May 1914, Page 2

Brontides.

The term "goufTre" is applied in Haiti to mysterious acoustic phenomena, probably of subterranean origin, and evidently belonging to the class of sounds known as " brontidi" or "brontides" reported from various parts of the world. They seem, however, to be much more varied i!n character than the typical brontides of Ttaly, Belgium, etc. Sometimes they resemble the boom of cannon, but again are described as deep rumblings, bowlings, a rushing sound, as of wind, a deafening crash, "as if a mountain of <;lass were shattered," and so on. They have been known in Haiti from the times of Moreau de St. Mery and the other early historians of the country. St. Martial Observatory, at Port, au Prince, has undertaken a systematic investigation of this

phenomenon by means of a questionaire addressed to numerous residents of the island, thus following the example of Van den Broeck in Belgium and Alippi in Italy.