in southern Europe the holly or
orange. The use of the rod is exhausting. If I have been at it a few
hours, the power gradually gets less. A rest and some sandwiches
produce fresh power, and I can start again.

"I think the friction of the water against the rock underground must
cause some electric current, for if the person using the rod stands on
a piece of glass, india-rubber, or other insulating material, all power
leaves him.

"In Cashmere, the rod is used before a well is sunk, and when the
French army went to Tonkin, they used the rod for finding drinking
water at their camps, as they feared the wells were poisoned."

If the divining rod is able to fathom the secrets of underground water
channels, it must be as potent in the case of buried treasure. Several
years ago, the claims of the modern "dowsers" were investigated by no
less an authority than Professor W. F. Barrett, holding the chair of
Experimental Physics in the Royal College of Science for Ireland. The
results were presented to the Society of Psychical Research and
published in two volumes of its proceedings. He said in his
introductory pages:

"At first sight, few subjects appear to be so unworthy of serious
notice and so utterly beneath scientific investigation as that of the
divining rod. To most men of science, the reported achievements of the
diviner are on a par with the rogueries of Sir Walter Scott's
'Dousterswivel.' That anyone with the smallest scientific training
should think it worth his while to devote a considerable amount of time
and labor to an enquiry into the alleged evidence on behalf of the
'rod' will appear to my scientific friends about as sensible as if he
spent his time investigating fortune-telling or any other relic of
superstitious folly. Nor was my own prejudice against the subject any
less than that of others. For I confess that it was with great
reluctance, and even repugnance, that some six years ago, yielding to
the earnest request of the Council of the Society for Psychical
Research, I began an investigation of the matter, hoping, however, in
my ignorance, that a few weeks work would enable me to relegate it 'to
a limbo, large and broad, since called the Paradise of Fools.'" In the
summing-up of his exhaustive investigations, Professor Barrett
committed himself to these conclusions:

"1. That the twisting of the forked twig, or so-called divining rod,
is due to involuntary muscular action on the part of