Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/183

Rh repeated experiments, that, while the rod dips when the "diviner" knows or believes he is over a water-spring or a metallic vein the results are uncertain, contradictory, or simply negative, when he is blindfolded, so as not to be aware precisely where he is. The following is a striking case of this kind that has been lately brought to my knowledge:

I very well remember having heard, some thirty-five years ago, from Mr. Dilke (the grandfather of the present Sir Charles), of an experiment of this kind which he had himself made upon a young Portuguese, who had come to him with a letter of introduction, describing the bearer of it as possessing a most remarkable power of finding, by means of the divining-rod, metals concealed from view. Mr. Dilke's family being at a summer residence in the country, his plate had all been sent to his chambers in the Adelphi, where he was visited by the Portuguese youth; to whom he said, "Go about the room with your rod, and try if you can find any mass of metal." The youth did so; and his rod dipped over a large standing desk, in which Mr. Dilke's plate had-been temporarily lodged. Seeing, however, that there were circumstances which might reasonably suggest this guess, Mr, Dilke asked the youth if he was willing to allow his divining power to be tested under conditions which should exclude all such suggestion; and, having received a ready assent, he took his measures accordingly. Taking his plate-box down to his country-residence, he secretly buried it just beneath the soil in a newly ploughed field; selecting a spot which he could identify by cross bearings of conspicuous trees, and getting a plough drawn again over its surface, so as to make this correspond precisely with that of the rest of the field. The young diviner was then summoned from