be
heard. Musicians of finely-cultivated ears have studied the tones of
waterfalls; and two of them, Messrs. A. and E. Heim, say that a mass
of falling water gives

"The chord of C sharp, and also the non-accordant F. When C
and D sound louder than the middle note, F is heard very
fully, as a deep, dull, humming, far-resounding tone, with
a strength proportionate to the mass of the falling water.
It easily penetrates to a distance at which the other notes
are inaudible. The notes C, E, G, F, belong to all rushing
water, and in great falls are sometimes in different
octaves. Small falls give the same notes one or two octaves
higher. In the stronger falls, F is heard the most easily;
in the weak ones, C. At the first attempt, C is most readily
detected. Persons with musical cultivation, on attempting to
sing near rapidly-moving water, naturally use the key of C
sharp, or of F sharp if near a great fall."

Somewhat similar to waterfalls in the character of the tunes they
produce (being distinguished, however, generally, by a greater
softness and more gentle flow) are the waves, that, handsome in form,
roll majestically shoreward, greeting the ear with a strange,
dirge-like, yet, as it seems to the writer, pleasing harmony.

Here is given a duet between the waves and zephyrs:--

"We sit beneath the dreaming moon,
And gaze upon the sea:
Our hearts with Nature are in tune;
List to her minstrelsy.
The waves chant low and soft their song,
And kiss the rocks in glee;
While zephyrs their sweet lay prolong,--
Their love-song to the sea."

There is a pretty, delicate music made by the rippling, gurgling
brooklet, as its transparent waters glide over its pebbly bottom. And
there's the musical sea-shell. Place it to the ear, and you shall
catch, as if in the far distance, the reverberating roll of the
billowy ocean as it sings a mighty song. To this the poet Wordsworth
very gracefully refers in the following lines:--

"I have seen
A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract
Of inland ground, applying to his ear
The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell:
To which, in silence hushed, his very soul
Listened intensely, and his countenance soon
Brightened with joy; for from within were heard
Murmurings whereby the monitor expressed
Mysterious union wit