416 



•was being made. Although it had been filled up many years 

 ago, and there were no outward signs of it, I had an opinion as 

 to where it was, and directed Mullins where to try. They 

 worked all day, but came upon no trace of it, and the general 

 opinion was that I was mistaken as to the spot. However, I 

 ordered them to go on in the same direction the next day, and 

 in the afternoon, after working a little more westward, they 

 suddenly came upon the well, and, on examining, we found that 

 the marks Mullins had made in the first place to denote the 

 position of the strongest spring pointed exactly into the centre of 

 the well. I then directed him to go down further for the water, 

 and, strange to say, at 111 feet, viz., within a foot of the distance 

 he had stated at first, we found the spring come in, and just 

 where he had marked it. The well now supplies 20 cottages, 

 and if, in a very dry season, they draw all the water out by 

 night, there is plenty again the next morning. 



" "Whilst this work was in progress, some friends and myself 

 arranged to test Mullins' capacity for discovering metal. In his 

 absence we took ten stones off the top of a wall, and, having 

 placed them on the road, we deposited a sovereign under three 

 of them. Mullins passed his rod over the top of each stone, 

 and, without the slightest hesitation, told us at once under 

 which stones the sovereigns were. When he came to a stone 

 under which there was no sovereign, he at once said ' Nothing 

 here, master,' but when he got to the others he remarked ' All 

 right, master, thankee,' turned the stone over and put the 

 sovereign in his pocket. He afterwards tried for water on the 

 Cottle's House Estate, the then owner, Dr. Parfitt, being very 

 anxious to obtain it, as there was none on the estate. Mullins, 

 however, tried in vain, and, having given it up as a bad job, 

 was leaving for home, when, just as he passed the front of New 

 House Farm, with his rod in his hand, it suddenly indicated the 

 presence of water. He at once said there was a strong spring at 

 a depth of about 18 feet only below the surface. He sank a 



