WATER FINDING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12768, 1 July 1911, Page 4

WATER FINDING.

Tho ancient superstition that a waterfinder,.or "dowser," as lie is* called, can- indicate the position of running water, hy walking over the place with '{• forked stick in his hand—the forked stick . indicating its presence- by moving cither upwards or downwards —i& given a standingI*scientific1*scientific name and-ex-planation by tho Dean of Clogher, In a recent number of tho Hibbort Journal. His first experience in waterfinding occurred at Rossory Glebe, whero ho went as t.hy bishop's repro f-entativo on- a commission of repairs. They found in a conier of an old kitchen a small well or clear water. The outside well was thirty-nino feet from tho ground to tho surface of tho water. They wished to find whore the clear water/earne from, so with Mr. Jervois, I lid, architect, they went to look for the soilreo. The architect cut a forked tnig of a snowberry bush, shaped it lihb a Y. Then he hold his elbows doso to bis side, .with his palms/upVjirds, tlm little fingers being next ono another. He bent tho forks of the twigs .'outwards, gripping tbpni at the two ends, with the point projecting horizontally befoi'e him. He held tho forks bent very tightty. ,In 'this attitudo he walked across the bank; sloping'towards the rectory. For some timo " t))6 stick remained pointing straight outwards; then suddenly, as he crossed a certain spot, the stick bent upwards violently and struck him nn the chest Ho was holding it :o .tifpttly ?that. the parts (Held |in his hands could not. turn and the wrench' broko.tho stick liko an untwisted' cord. Ho passed beyond the spot and the : twig remained inert;. but going backwards or forwards; always at the same spot where the stream was running underneath, tho twig leaped upward. When tho Dean tried the same experiment, and passed over the spot, the twig was suddenly pulled downward as if by a strong magnet. He held it as tightly as -ho could, but in spite of his offorts, it "twisted round and pointed downwards. The sensation Mas as if someone had seized the apex of the forked branch and forcibly pulled it down. There was no muscular movement, and every dowser is persuaded that tho twig moves his hand, and not his hand the twig. A largo number of experiments make him believe that tho phenomenon is in so'mo way connected with electricity, or at least that electricity offers a partial explanation. The rod does not move in-the-hands of a man who is .noh-.ser.sitivc'.. The-'in-fer en co is-that tho rod does not- move from tho foreo which proceeds From wator- as such, but from friction or J some other source made by running water confined by a solid substance, such-as tho sides of a. drajn ,or lvatorpip.o, which, ti.sconding through, tho ground, passes into'the feet to tho rod. ' 'fbo presence of running water is indicated when the rod. j.s hold by a sen si-! five, and -when tho feet are not in-' snlatctl from tho ground. There ar-J s-aid-to bo so'mo person.*, in every com-; '

j inunity who' have this power of locating running water, and it will be somewhat of a .disappointment to them to be told that it has any such simple and natural explanation But the explanation may convince the sceptical who have scoffed at their powers. Yet as dowsers., have boon successful in locating many other things besides running water, such as ores and mineral.--, the complete explanation of their pow-' ers may be found now to science. Tho v riter of the artiolo thinks that to ..expin in the phenomena fully we have to fall back on some unknown force which will, biing tho motion of the rod into tho wjm.o .category a~s many of tho "physical phenomena'" of spiritualism; for thero may be a much closer connection than is at present .recognised l)et ween these phenomena and thd actual physical personality of tho medium. -"".'