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those of Mnllins himself. I took no further action then in the 

 matter; but described what I had seen to an eminent civil 

 engineer, who assured me that from his knowledge of the 

 geological formation of the country, he could say confidently 

 there was no chance of finding a water supply under my new 

 house at a depth of less than 120 or 130 feet, and his opinion 

 was confirmed by another geological authority who was then 

 in the neighbourhood. So I virtually gave up all hope of 

 deriving any benefit from Mullins' assertions. Some weeks later, 

 however, my gardener came to me and said that he was in great 

 want of water in the kitchen garden; that he had tried repeatedly 

 with the twig over the place where Mullins indicated a rivulet ; 

 that it invariably turned up at the spot, and that he was quite 

 convinced there was water there. If I would allow him, he 

 could sink a well with the garden labourers, so as not to involve 

 any additional expense. I consented to this ; the well was sunk 

 to a depth of nearly 20 feet, when water poured into it freely, 

 and it has supplied a long range of hot-houses ever since. 



" On the strength of what had occurred in the kitchen garden, 

 I set Towers to traverse the new site, where the lines of water 

 indicated by Mullins had been marked by pegs 60 yards or 70 

 yards apart, and just visible above the grass. These lines Towers 

 and his twig emphatically confirmed, and I proceeded to test 

 him. I had the projecting extremities of the prongs of the twig 

 held tight by pincers, so that there could be no voluntary action 

 on Towers' part when crossing the marked lines. Despite this, 

 the point of the twig twisted itself upwards till the bark was 

 wrinkled and almost split, while the strain and pressure upon the 

 muscles of the man's hands were most apparent. I then blindfolded 

 him, and turned him loose. The result was precisely the same. 

 Whenever he crossed Mullins' lines, up went the twig. The 

 presumption now appeared to be so strong in favour of the twig 

 that I determined to disregard the geologists, and have a well sunk 

 on one of the lines. This was done ; at the depth of about 28 



