118 
THE DIVINING BOD. 
water should be found, and another where it should not. 
Through these spots shafts were then to be sunk, and the 
prediction verified or not. In order to simplify the conditions 
of the experiment, Mr. Pease requested the dowser to operate 
blindfolded, but to this he absolutely refused to consent. This 
was very unfortunate, as the trial became one rather of the skill 
of the dowser than of the truth of dowsing : and I noticed during 
the trial that the dowser made very good use of his eyes. Look- 
ing about, he walked direct to one side of the field, without 
using his rod ; — -not wandering as one might have expected, rod 
in hand, hither and thither, in blind search for an indication. 
Arrived at the place he had chosen he used the rod over a line 
of march some 20 or 30 paces long, and as he did so the rod 
plunged vertically upwards at a spot where he then asserted 
water would be found. He repeated the traverse further down 
the field, in the same manner and with the same result. This 
he did again and again, and so produced the impression that a 
stream of water was flowing towards the sea beneath our feet, 
and along a line indicated by the successive points which he 
indicated by the rod. We therefore asked him to dowse along 
the length of the stream instead of finding points over it by 
traverses, and this he very willingly did, walking in an 
undulating manner over what he gave us to understand was the 
course of the stream. Finally, we requested him to make a 
fresh traverse and to indicate the spots where digging was to be 
commenced. He did so, and at our suggestion selected a place 
about 20 paces to the north of a ditch or “ rhyne ” which flows 
through the flat, as that where water would be found, and 
another 1 5 ft. north of this, where he stated it would not. 
We determined the position of these places in a way that 
left no possibility of changing them, and made arrangements for 
pits to be sunk by the dowser and his assistants. The super- 
vision of the work as it proceeded was deputed to me. 
