THE DIVINING-ROD.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 58, 4 March 1913, Page 1

THE DIVINING-ROD.

In an article 011 the divining-rod, published in the 'Sydney Morning Herald/ .Mr W„ Gibbons Cox, 0.K., says The theory that there is any direct connection (sympathy) or electric influence between the divining-rod and the water is repudiated by modern science. In carrying out and directing (wring operations for many years 1 have had special opportunities for studying the practical value of the divining-rod. Jn one case in Central Queensland a prominent selector's son became a devotee to the "art," leaving the selection and advertising his skill largely in the local press. The manager of the station took liim in hand, and ne was put to a thorough test by leading him, rod in hand, over a running channel which supplied the homestead from a perpetual spring in tin adjacent hills, and which had i-een filled in years before with broken rock ana covered u»> the surincc showing no indication of the channel beneath, whose waters emntied into a 'jret-k at a lower level. The rod gave 1.0 indication whatever in crossing the lined channel several times, and the diviner returned eventually to the selection and payable work. That pastoralists have given encouragement has been no doubt due to an overestimate of fcheir skill by the pretended professors of the art. I have known of a number of failures—a costly result in this country. Caution is therefore necessary sn putting faith in a "diviner" unless his work has stood the test of thorough and independent investigation; a record of every trial hole is needed (for we hear little of the failures), and an exact statement of the result of each case for, say a couple of years. Divin-ing-rod operations may be successful in regions where ground water occurs, as in the alluvial plains, or river valleys, in which few failures occur, because water can bo got almost anywhere. It has been found that, given the general surface indications, a wellborer of long experience, by utilising the knowledge and the intuition which , has become, by a slow but sure process, natural to him, can locate boring sites with an almost absolute certainly of success ; and that, in cases, where the strata he meets with do not promise well, he knows when to stop expenditure and to try again further on. It is hardly necessary to say that men who know any thing of scientific methods in the examination of nature regard the alleged power of the divining-rod as duo to either conscious knavery or to a more or less unconscious delusion, the whole phenomenon being due to the agency "of a strong impression on_ the 1 innd acting through the agency of the nerves and muscles, and experiments show that the accompanying movement of the rod more frequently occurs in localities where the operator believes that water exists.