26 DIFFICULTIES OF CHISELLING. 



to the inhabitant. Nothing will do but the chisel, 

 and this is by no means easy of appliance. It is rare 

 that the position of the hole is such as to allow of 

 both arms working with any ease ; the rock is under 

 water, and often, if your chisel is short, it is wholly 

 immersed during the work, when every blow which 

 the hammer strikes upon its head has to fall upon 

 a stratum of water, which splashes forcibly into your 

 eyes and over your clothes ; the rock is very hard, and 

 the chisel makes little impression ; and what is fre- 

 quently the greatest disappointment of all, the powdery 

 debris produced by the bruising of the stone mingles 

 with the water and presently makes it perfectly opaque, 

 as if a quantity of powdered chalk had been mixed with 

 it, so that you cannot see how to direct the blows, you 

 cannot discern whether you have uncovered the 

 Actinia or not, and frequently are obliged to give up 

 the attempt when nearly accomplished, simply because 

 you can neither see hole nor Actinia, and as to feeling 

 in the pap-like mud that your implement has been 

 making, it is out of the question. Supposing how- 

 ever, that you have got on pretty well, that by making 

 a current in the pool with your hand you have washed 

 away the clouded water sufficiently to see the where- 

 abouts, and that you perceive that another well-direc- 

 ted blow or two will split off the side of the cavity, 

 — you have now to take care so to proportion the 

 force that at last you may neither crush the animal 

 with the chisel on the one hand, nor on the other 

 drive it off so suddenly that it shall fall with the 

 fragment to the bottom of the pool out of reach. 

 However, we will suppose you have happily 



