The Invincible Dowser
Some architects, one of them tells me, still find a use for water diviners, and believe in their mystic art. The scientists, on the other hand, utterly condemn the belief, and British Association recently published tests (concerning a group of New Zealand diviners qinounted to a wholesale condemnation., One practical' diviner pt my. acquaintance—he successfully sank a deep well for me—demonstrated his art before beginning operations, but added; not without naivete, that "geology is a great help "; and, in fact, he knew the water-levels over the whole district. My own faith is weakened, not so much by a personal failure with the wire or hazel fork, not so much by the lack of scientific support, as by the history of the rod. It was first used for the detection of criminals and the discovery of precious metals.
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