WATER DIVINING GREGORY 343 



of oil in the former positions and ttie absence of anything but clay in the latter 

 positions. 



Beyond quoting the valedictory remarks of one of the diviners that he " was 

 quite at a loss to explain his failure and that he had had hardly any expe- 

 rience in detecting oil, as facilities in England were so limited and that what 

 he would like would be to experiment on a known oil field " further comment 

 would appear unnecessary. 



It may be interesting to record that in a subsequent letter expressing their 

 thanks for the facilities granted they wrote (inter alia). 



1. The rod responds to substances other than oil, and further investigation 

 will be necessary to discover what these substances are. As it is possible to 

 distinguish between metals and water with the hazel rod, we have every hope 

 of perfecting our methods of finding oil. 



2. The barrel test was an unsatisfactory one from our point of view, as the 

 close proximity of all the barrels and a car with petrol in the tank near by 

 made it almost impossible to localize the exact position of the oil. 



3. The fact that we failed to centralize the oil deposits in the paddock by 30 

 to 40 yards in every case makes it evident that our formula needs adjustment. 



4. While recognizing our failure to localize small quantities of oil over a 

 fairly extensive area, we feel that this in no way affects the possibilities of 

 finding larger quantities satisfactorily. (Successful experiments over the 

 L. M. S. R. oil tanks had already been carried out.) 



Testing the divining rod is difficult and promises no answer that 

 will be universally accepted, because the claims of the different 

 diviners are so contradictory and elusive that any test may apply 

 only to the individual tested, and perhaps to him only on a particular 

 da3^ Failures are explained as due to the incompetence of the 

 diviner tested, or to some accident which neutralized the effect of 

 the subject sought. Thus a recent number of the Spectator (Septem- 

 ber 24, 1927, p. 458) reports that buried treasure was located by a 

 diviner; digging for it was unsuccessful, and the diviner explained 

 that his rod had felt a piece of ironstone found in the pit. Failures 

 therefore are always excused and inconclusive. 



VI. THE WORK OF THE ABBE PARAMELLE 



Many of the claims for the success of the divining rod when inves- 

 tigated are found to depend on other methods. Thus Barrett and 

 Besterman (1926, p. 54) claim the Abbe Paramelle as one of the most 

 successful of French diviners. The success of that abbe in finding 

 water in many areas of southwestern France made him a great na- 

 tional benefactor. The Abbe has described his method of work in 

 his book L'Art de Decouvrir les Sources, Paris (1856) which em- 

 phatically repudiates any help from the divining rod. He tested it 

 many times; he says (op. cit., p. iii) it has a great vogue "among 

 the ignorant " but although he tried it repeatedly across underground 

 streams of water he never felt it make the slightest movement in his 

 hands. He had watched many dozens of " bacillogires," including 

 the most famous, and he declared that with them the rod moves 



