204 A FEW NOTES ON WATER DIVINING. 



bility of the dowser ascertaining anything about the place where the 

 experiments were to be performed. Those who lent their properties were 

 not told anything about the dowsers until they arrived to perform their 

 experiments and the dowsers were not told what places they were to visit 

 until they met me on the day appointed for the experiments. 



Although very interesting, it is unnecessary for me, in a 

 short paper of this kind, to analyse the various tests to which the 

 diviners were subjected, but the conclusions arrived at by Pro- 

 fessor Wertheimer are given below : — 



In so far as these experiments have gone, I am inclined to believe 

 that the motion of the dowser's rod and the sensations which he experi- 

 ences are not due to any cause outside himself. The experiments do not 

 answer definitely the question whether or not dowsers have the power to 

 find water; but I think they show (a) that experienced doivsers did 

 not give the same indications in the same places; and (b) that the move- 

 ments of their rods were in most of the experiments described due purely 

 to subjective causes. 



It would be futile to infer that the power of divining is not 

 possessed by certain individuals, but how far it is desirable to 

 spend large sums of money on their recommen<;lations is quite 

 another matter. 



There is no doul>t that many successes have been obtained 

 by diviners, and it is within my personal knowledge that small 

 quantities of water were found on two occasions in England, 

 where, as an engineer, I should not have had the temerity to 

 recommend the sinking of wells. The quantities obtained in the 

 two cases referred to were about 20,000 and 45,000 gallons per 

 day respectively. It is a well-known fact, however, that it is verv 

 difficult to sink a well or bore in earth, shales, the sandstones, 

 chalk, limestone, the oolites, and certain other formations, with- 

 out intersecting some underground water, and to this fact alone 

 many of the dowsers' successes are to be considered due. 



A diviner is supposed to rely absolutely on the occult power 

 he possesses when selecting a site for obtaining water, but it is 

 generally found that he has some elementary knowledge of 

 geology and hydrology as well, and that he is not guided alto^ 

 gether by the divining power. 



It is also difficult to understand how a diviner discriminates 

 between water and metals, for the divining rod is supposed to 

 be affected in both cases. 



A hydraulic engineer with large e.x'perience, who is 

 thoroughly conversant with geology and hydrology, is, without 

 douljt, in a nmch better position to deal with schemes requiring 

 lari^c sn[>plics of water than one who simply relies on the divining 

 power only. In fact, I am not aware of a single instance where 

 a diviner has been called in to obtain large supplies of water. 

 On the contrary, I know of a large number of cases in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Johannesburg where water has been found by 

 diviners, but has failed altogether in a dry season. The 

 reason, of course, is not far to seek, for the diviners on the Rand 

 have generally been successful in connection with sniall supplies 

 from quartzite fissures in impermeable rocks, and this is alsf> the 



