ard, leaving, of course, the telephone
out of consideration. The reply was most interesting, and was as
follows: Eighteen miles is the longest distance on record at which a
man's voice has been heard. This occurred in the Grand Canon of the
Colorado, where one man shouting the name "Bob" at one end his voice was
plainly heard at the other end, which is eighteen miles away. Lieutenant
Foster, on Parry's third arctic expedition, found that he could converse
with a man across the harbor of Port Bowen, a distance of 6696 feet, or
about one mile and a quarter: and Sir John Franklin said that he
conversed with ease at a distance of more than a mile. Dr. Young records
that at Gibraltar the human voice has been heard at a distance of ten
miles.

Sound has remarkable force in water. Colladon, by experiments made in
the Lake of Geneva, estimated that a bell submerged in the sea might be
heard a distance of more than sixty miles. Franklin says that he heard
the striking together of two stones in the water half a mile away. Over
water or a surface of ice sound is propagated with great clearness and
strength. Dr. Hutton relates that on a quiet part of the Thames near
Chelsea he could hear a person read distinctly at the distance of 140
feet, while on the land the same could only be heard at 76 feet.
Professor Tyndall, when on Mont Blanc, found the report of a pistol-shot
no louder than the pop of a champagne bottle. Persons in a balloon can
hear voices from the earth a long time after they themselves are
inaudible to people below.

ON BOARD THE ARK.

BY ALBERT LEE.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Lion bowed in a dignified manner to the Gopher, and rapped on the
table again to bring the Parrots to order, and then the Gopher said,
very slowly and deliberately:

"When is a door not a door?"

The animals stared at one another, and whispered, and gazed up and down
the table as if they thought they might possibly derive inspiration from
the dishes. Tommy and the ex-Pirate said not a word. Presently the
Gopher repeated:

"When is a door not a door?"

But no one could guess, and after a few moments more of anxious and
strained silence the Gopher said:

"I suppose I shall have to tell you. A door is not a door when it is
ajar."

[Illustration: THE ANIMALS ROARED WITH LAUGHTER AT THE GOPHER'S JOKE.]

The animals fairly roared and shrieked with laughter. They bellowed and
howled and pounded on the table, and the Gopher became so m