Subsequent to the satisfactory experiment at Coloma it happened that on one occasion, when I was traveling west on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, that I was introduced to a gentleman engaged in building a road, who related to me that during its construction the engineers had made use of drive wells as they moved rapidly along. As the water question was always one of interest to me, our conversation drifted, naturally, to "water-witching." The gentleman said that all of his knowledge on this subject had been obtained from his brother--a young man employed by Horace Greeley on his farm at Chappaqua. Mr. Greeley had sent for him from hearing of him as extremely intelligent and thrifty as a farm hand. It happened while the young man was at Chappaqua that a well was needed, and the question of "water-witching" came up. The young man said that his belief was, that if one man could find water, so could another--whereupon he took a forked switch and, walking about, found that the magic wand turned down over a rock. He had a blast of powder put in at the point, the smoke of which hardly cleared away, revealed a spring of water. Here is simply a repetition of the smiting of the rock. In my own experience I have a similar instance: I was assistant superintendent at Highlands, on the Vandalia line. Mr. ----, then chief engineer, had, previous to my arrival, caused a well of ten feet diameter and forty feet depth to be dug and walled up with brick, but the supply of water was so small that it could be pumped out in a few minutes. A hole had then been drilled sixteen feet to the rock, which was conglomerate, of very great hardness, with no better results. The well was therefore abandoned. If I had seen Mr. ----, I should have advised penetrating the rock, but I did not meet him, and did not wish to interfere with the work.