The herald., 1897-04-04
! OWNING ROD OR WATER WITCH
oooooooooooooooooooooooo
written for The Herald.) }


The locating of streams of water un-
derground with forked stick, common
" supposed to be the witch hazel from
which that shrub takes its name. is
generally considered one of the old de-
lusions with little extra vitality. There
are, however two sides to the question.
In this age 1t is extremely foolish to dis
believe anything because we don't un-
derstand it. And 1t is equally foolish to
believe any new nonsense because we
have been deceiyed by skepticisn1.
I always supposed the divining rod
an arrant humbug until one Of the best
hydraulic engineers in Southern Cali
fornia told me he had located with 1t
the artesian wells that now supply the
city of Riverside with domestic water.
On cross-examination he admitted he
believed there was artesian water there,
but insisted that the water witch would
tell where the strongest streams were.
Being at the wells he showed me how 1t
worked. 1 found it would do the same
with me and some mysterious power
seemed to pull it down when over the
lines on which the wells were pouring
out their strong flow.
Since then have made many expert
ments with 1t, running over many years,
and have had rare opportunities in busi-
ness for studying the mysterious action
of the forked twig. / have also at Idle
times in hunting and fishing experiment.
ed with 1t in all sorts of ways.
Amy kind of twig in the shape OF a
letter Y seems to do, whether green or
dry or half dry, seems to make little
difference. Whalebone wrapped with
copper wire, with a bulb on the end con-
tanning chemicals" Is used by some.
But l believe 1t would work the same
without any chemicals or wire. And a
large piano wire bent in the right shape
will do the same.
This is generally held in the hands by
the branches of the Y, with the thumbs
outward and the backs of the hands
downward, and started at an angle OF
about IS degrees above the horizon,
pointing away from you. When the pull
is felt the stem of the will come toward
you, bend over downward between your
arms until it points toward your feet.
making a little over half circle in its
turning.
When you grasp the rod you find that
with a slight effort you can make 1t turn
in this way. This raises at once sus"
picion that the motion is from involun-
tary muscular action. And this is in
creased by the fact that 1t will not work
unless there Is some tension or strain
put upon it, as in turning the hands out
ward, and will not turn II held in the
hands with the thumbs upward and
backs of the fingers toward each other.
But involuntary muscular action that
could produce such strong motion as
the twig has, so strong as to twist the
bark off sometimes If resisted by turning
the wrists over outward against 1t, and
produce such apparent force in spite OF
all efforts to detect 1t, is in itself phe-
nomenon so remarkable that l set to
work to study that out.
I soon found that it will work only In
the hands of about five persons out of
ten. In these it seems about equally
strong, and in the hands of the other
five there is not a trace of motion any
where. l then tried it with children OF
ten or twelve years old who had no idea
of what / wanted them to carry 1t for.
The result was the same as with the
grown people. / found also that among
those with whom it will work al all there
is little motion everywhere. but strong
only in certain places, and also that 10y
wrapping enough paper around the
twigs, tied with thread so tightly that
any muscular motion would be trans
mitted through, the motion may be
stopped, and so it may be with gloves.
l have also seen many like myself start
out with the muscular action theory,
and with all confidence attempt to prove
it to me and finally surrender. and ad-
NIT that there Is some mysterious force
about it that we know nothing Of The
ignorant, of course. charge 1t up to cleo
tricity, others to animal magnetism.
You might as we'll say 1t is the attraction
of the music of the spheres, for it's SO diff
ferent from all we know of electricity or
magnetism, animal or otherwise, that
such explanations are absurd.
Having discovered that the rod would
give a strong downward pull over places
where 1 knew there were streams OF
water underground. I tried 1t where
knew there was no water, or at least
none within practical reach. AS rule
there was no motion or a very slight
one. In other cases there was some
times considerable. In one case on the
top of a knife blade ridge in one of the
driest sections of California, where 1t
was plain at a glance down each side of
the ridge that there was no water for
at least four hundred feet, there was a
very strong pull at particular place.
A few experiments like this convinced
me that it either indicated something
beside water or indicated that at such
more experiments while travelling In the
cars or a wagon over different kinds of
country led me to think II so unreliable
for practical use where the question of
spending money is involved that for a
time I abandoned all hope of making
any practical use of it. At the same
time / was the more certain that run
ming water underground does affect the
rod. 1t is equally certain that standing
water or running water above ground
does not. Some claim that OIL gold or
silver make 1t move. I have heard
some very strong evidence on these
points but have been too ekeptical to
invest any time In testing them.
For several years had no faith in the
rod as a pract:o al factor in water devel-
opment. though still experimental with
1t at times when travelling about. and 1t
took no time or work to carry 1t. There
was some thing so curious about 1t that
I always felt an interest in 1t. One day
while examining water proposition to
report for some capital, I cut wal
nut twig and tried 1t. IT was under
ground water which it was proposed to
develop with tunnels. Over some six
hundred acres there were about two
hundred springs, all coming from some
distant source. They had the same
water. snow water by taste ,and all diff
ferent from that of the local watershed.
The springs ran an average of about four
gallons minute, varying from
one to about sixty gallons a min
ute each. The largest came out
on the sides or ends Of high steep ridges.
where the local watershed was some-
times no larger than the roof Of house,