540 PLEISTOCENE AND RECENT. 



Rupert Jones has observed that the names ' wishing well ' and ' wish well ' are 

 recognized as containing the Celtic word for water (perhaps spring), and therefore 

 tliey were proliably Pre-historic, being at places of old occupation. The suflix 

 zvell, met with in a number of village names, is rarely connected with a spring, 

 it usually signifies an abode. ^ In the case of Clerkenwell, Shadwell, etc., the 

 name has been applied to local wells or springs of water. - 



The use of the Divining Rod for purposes of finding water is still a subject of 

 faith with some individuals. In their work on wells and well-sinking (p. 27), 

 Messrs. J. G. Swindell and G. R. Burnell state, " It is, however, undoubted that 

 some persons are keenly sensitive to change of humidity, and hence possess special 

 powers, apart from that due to knowledge of locality." But as the Divining Rod 

 has been employed also for finding various metals as well as coal, it may fairly 

 be regarded as the superstition of an age that, strange to say, is not yet bygone.'^ 



On the eastern borders of Lincolnshire there are certain ' Blow wells,' some due 

 to the rush of sea- water at incoming tides, driving sand or the air out of cavities in the 

 strata, and forcing it upwards to the surface. Near Selsea, on a branch of the old 

 Plarbour of Pagham, there used to be a remarkable ' Hushing Pool,' due simply 

 to the bubbling and hissing produced by the disengagement of the air from the 

 gravel before the incoming tide.'' 'Blowing wells' have been observed in some 

 parts of the north of England, as near Preston, from which currents of air issue, 

 and this phenomenon is due to changes in atmospheric pressure.^ 



Caverns. 



Caverns are formed in most limestone strata : whether inland 

 or near the sea-coast. Many no doubt originate by the enlarge- 

 ment of fissures along planes of joints or faults, and consist of a 

 succession of chambers at different levels. They owe their origin 

 to the chemical action of carbonated water, aided also by the 

 mechanical disintegration of the limestone by frost and other 

 meteoric agencies. In this respect they differ from sea-worn 

 caves, which are found in different kinds of rock, both calcareous 

 and siliceous, and are formed chiefly by mechanical wear and tear. 

 The material removed from inland caverns is for the most part 

 carried away by underground streams, in solution and in suspension. 

 Some portions of the material are often re-deposited in the form 

 of stalactitic and stalagmitic accumulations, in mud or loam (Cave 

 Earth), pebbles and angular detritus (breccia). Bones, too, 

 frequently occur, some of which may have been introduced from 

 above ground, while others may have belonged to animals or men 

 that formerly inhabited the cavern. 



There is, however, no doubt that many of our Caverns were 

 occupied at several successive periods, from Pleistocene and Palaeo- 

 lithic to early British times and even later. In some cases the 



^ See Trans. Norf. Nat. Soc. iii. 526. 

 '^ Isaac Taylor, Words and Places, ed. 6, p. 105. 



^ See Geol. East Somerset (Geol. Survey), p. 168; A. C. Pass and E. B. 

 Tawney, Proc. Bristol Nat. Soc. (2) i. 60 ; G. Agricola, De Re Metallica, 1621. 

 * P. J. Martin, Q.J. xii. 135 ; C. Reid, Geol. Holderness, p. 128. 

 ^ J. Rofe, G. Mag. 1S67, p. 106; A. Strahan, Nature, 1883, pp. 375, 461. 



