WATER DIVINING GREGORY 345 



VII. THE NATURE OF DIVINING 



Though Paramelle scouted the use of the rod, some of the most 

 successful diviners have apparently worked unconsciously on the 

 same lines. Mullins was jDrobably a man with the same type of 

 insight,^ but who, as an uneducated mason, adopted a less satis- 

 factory explanation of his success than the more cultured and 

 intelligent French abbe. 



The successful water diviner i,s probably a quick observer, who 

 has usually had considerable experience in the search for water, and 

 as he goes over the ground yard by yard he recognizes clues to the 

 presence of underground water, which subconsciously lead to some 

 movement of the strained muscles of the hand. Under some con- 

 ditions he will probably .score no higher proportion of successes than 

 a competent water expert who deliberately judges by the conditions 

 of the ground. In some areas however there are no surface indica- 

 tions of underground water, and the ground has to be tested em- 

 pirically as in " wild-catting " for oil, when wells have to be sunk 

 on chance owing to the conditions of the country, or lack of time for 

 a careful survey. 



Consider, for example, the conditions on a ridge of clay capped 

 by an irregular sheet of sand and gravel as shown in Figure 16. 

 On virgin land it would probably be possible to recognize from the 

 vegetation and moisture the position of underground water; but the 

 clues are obscured or destroyed by draining and prolonged tilling 

 which give the ground an artificial surface. Beneath it there may 

 be water-bearing pockets of sand and gravel lying on the clay. The 

 largest water supply would probably be found at the point I on Fig- 

 ure 16; a smaller quantity at the position marked II, and none at all 

 in many places (III). If a geologist were asked to select the best 

 place for water on this ridge he might regard the task as almost 

 hopeless. At the end of a prolonged drought clues to the under- 

 ground water might become apparent, but as the man who wants 

 the water may not be ready to wait for 20 years the only method is 

 to sink some trial wells. A diviner going over this ground might 

 select a good position either by his special experience in the selec- 

 tion of sites for shallow wells, or by sheer luck. 



In some cases the rod is claimed to act where the diviner is not 

 guided by surface features. Thus, according to a memorandum by 

 Mr. Little, who was agent to the Earl of Jersey, which has been 

 kindly shown me by Sir Herbert Maxwell, Mullins was employed at 

 Upton, Edgehill, Warwickshire; and as Lady Caroline Jenkins, 

 Lord Jersey's sister, could not go out, and wished to see how the 



° I am informed that Mullins sometimes made elaborate preliminary inquiries as to the 

 distribution of wells and the persistence of pools and damp ground. 



