Lost Sounds :: Free Descriptive Essay About A Place

Lost Sounds At first, it was a little awkward, but after I got accustomed to keeping my eyes closed in front of the whole class, I could relax and just listen. The many times I had previously visited the Everglades, it had never occurred to me that one very important aspect of the Everglades is the calming sounds it produces. I then remembered that many people come to the Everglades not to learn about it or enjoy its views, but to get away from the chaos of the city. With my eyes closed and my classmates quiet, I felt I was by myself. Nothing could come between me and the nature surrounding me. I heard a little bird in the distance, its chirp muffled by the leaves fiercely rustling in the wind; it reminded me of one of those CDs that people buy to relax or fall asleep. This â€Å"CD,† though, would never be heard again: in my mind I had captured the unique music made by nature at that precise moment. When I got home, I locked myself in the bathroom, turned the light off, and closed my eyes once more. I wanted to see if I could remember those sounds: I knew they would make me eager to return to class in two weeks. My experiment was a success. I can only imagine the feelings of the first explorers of the Everglades when they got to these majestic lands. Native Americans had already been living there for millennia when the Everglades was â€Å"discovered,† and had grown accustomed to the music it made. Yet, the new explorers probably had not seen or heard anything similar in their lives. When they closed their eyes, they would have heard nature yet untouched by the hands of humankind: hundreds, maybe even thousands, of birds calling each other, alligators bellowing under a cool shade, frogs imitating crickets and pigs, and, of course, the soft wind making waves on the sawgrass and then softly cooling their faces. It must have been glorious! Most of these things can still be heard today, but less frequently. As people hunted down animals, drained the Everglades, and developed cities, they took away many key elements of this ecosystem. Some, like the birds, are still struggling to achieve stable numbers of populatio n that would guarantee the survival of future generations of their species.