122 
THE DIVINING KOD. 
the shaft, descending as far as the water, and examining the 
nature of the sides, d he deposits passed through were as follows: — ^ 
Blue Silt 14 ft. 
Peat 1ft., or 1ft. Gin. 
Blue Silt, becoming sandy lower down ... 8ft. 
Bed Clay (? Trias) 5 ft. or 6 ft. 
The sinker told me they had sunk to 29 ft., in which case 
the red clay would have been penetrated to the depth of 6 ft. 
If this red clay is Trias, then Trias must be beneath both wells, 
and the bottom rock being the same in each, the dowser must 
have calculated on the presence of gravel in the + well, and its 
absence in the — well, if he made his prediction on scientific grounds. 
Water was streaming from the sandy sides of the — well just 
as I had seen it issuing from the sides of the + well on June 1st. 
August. Mr. Metcalfe visited the wells for me and found 
the water standing at the same level in each. 
This record of observations seems to me to completely verify 
the prediction made on the scientific side that the behaviour of 
the two pits with regard to furnishing water would in all 
probability be the same for each. The dowser attributed the 
water in the — well to an outflow from the +, but this is of 
course an excuse made after the trial had been completed, under 
conditions to which he had himself assented; and an excuse 
which is without any rational basis. For if the rock between 
the — and -f- wells is so porous that water can stream through it 
from one to the other (and the increase implies this), then the 
rock between the two, and necessarily surrounding the two, will 
be water-bearing, and would furnish water to both, and thus 
would have supplied the — well if the one had not existed. 
The tenant who farms the estate said he had seen the water 
flowing from the + to — well ! The dowser and his assistants 
confined themselves to asserting that it went into the — well 
from the side nearest the + well, as indeed, from my own 
