Re: [gardeners] finding wells
Harry Boswell (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Wed, 27 Feb 2002 10:34:31 -0600
----- Original Message -----
From: "c.l. avery" <clavery111@hotmail.com>
To: <gardeners@globalgarden.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 4:16 PM
Subject: [gardeners] finding wells
: Dear Penny,
:
: Back in the old days my uncle claimed he was a water witch and could find
: water with a bent stick. Of course, this was in the Berkshires, in western
: Mass., where there are creeks, freshets, rivers, swamps, bogs - in short
: there is water everywhere. He took me out in the north field one summer day
: and I gave it a try. I was maybe l0. Sure enough the stick bent downwards.
: We were maybe l00 feet from a large brook at the time though. Looking
: back on it now, I'm doubtful about its veracity and really think it was the
: psychology of the situation that made the stick feel like it had to go down
: towards the ground.
:
My grandfather claimed to be a water witch. My father was a groundwater
hydrologist with the US Geological Survey, one of the most respected
groundwater
people in the country (no lie - I was at a Sierra Club meeting in Washington,
DC
once and met a hydrologist from somewhere - Colorado or Minnesota or
some such - and when he heard my name, he asked if I was related to Ernest
Boswell - he said "he's a legend, man!"). Anyway, my father absolutely
believed
water witching was total bunk, and never convinced my grandfather of that.
But my father could tell you where you'd hit water and at what depth, almost
anywhere
in the southeast US.