Xiv Proceedings. 
to his conclusion that the Betchworth boulders may have come 
from the West of England.* 
The little work by H. B. Woopwarp, entitled ‘‘ Soils and Sub- 
soils from a sanitary point of view; with especial reference to 
London and its Neighbourhood,’’} is one that most of you should 
have. The coloured map of sub-soils, arranged according to 
composition, is a new adaptation of a geologic map, and the 
work is throughout of great practical interest. 
In this year appeared a very elaborate paper, by Prof. W. F. 
Barrett, “On the so-called Divining Rod,” } and Surrey is in 
the running. A successful case at Holmwood is recorded on p. 
99; but without any note of the geology of the sites referred to. 
‘The Richmond Experiments”’ are described in pp. 188-195, 
and we hear that ‘‘ the results were only of transient success.” 
As two diviners were employed, and their ‘results were rather 
startlingly different,’ one can hardly speak of success. The 
experiments were made in a gallery at the Waterworks, deep 
underground. That the moderate success was ‘‘ transient”? may 
be gathered from the facts, chronicled by the engineer, that ‘‘ the 
one bore-hole that yielded 8000 gallons a day on the first day 
gradually fell off and was exhausted at the end of the week,” 
and that twenty-two bore-holes gave ‘‘a very small increase in 
the quantity of the water.” It is only right to say that the cost 
of the experiment was not borne by the Corporation, but by one 
of its members, and purely as a test. 
‘The Wimbledon Experiments’’ were made by the author 
himself, to test ‘‘the lad who bears the appropriate name of 
Fred. Rodwell,” and the account of them takes up pp. 203-206. 
We hear of one experiment that ‘here he blundered a good 
deal’’; of another that ‘the test was. ..a complete failure”’ ; 
in another an old well, grassed over, was crossed and recrossed 
without any indication of water; in yet another a hidden tank, 
full of water, fared the same way. Other smaller kinds of 
failure are chronicled, and therefore we may agree with the 
author that ‘the result was unsatisfactory’ from the dowsing 
point of view, though I could hardly join him in adding “ or, 
to say the least, inconclusive’’; for it seems to me conclusive 
enough, as far as regards this one performer. 
The balance, then, of the Surrey evidence is not in favour of 
the magic twig. 
P. Grirrira, in treating of the ‘‘ Water Supply of Small 
Towns, .. .’’§ described the second Godalming works (pp. 68- 
* Geol. Mag., dec. iv, vol. iv, pp. 238, 239. 
+ Geological Survey Memoir. 8vo, London. 
+ Proc. Soc. Psychical Research, pt. xxxii. I have to quote from an 
author’s copy, in which the original pagination has been unwisely aban- 
doned by the printer. 
§ Trans. Soc. Eng., p.55. | 
