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she worked at random, following all sorts 

 of directions, excavation would demand an 

 infinite area of soil, out of all proportion to 

 the means at my disposal. Well, her inva- 

 riable adherence to the perpendicular in- 

 forms me that I need not trouble about the 

 quantity of sand available, but only about 

 the depth of the bed. In these conditions, 

 the undertaking is not unreasonable. 



As good luck will have it, I possess a 

 glass tube which has long been diverted 

 from chemistry and placed at the service of 

 entomology. It is a yard or more in length, 

 and over an inch in width. If fixed in a ver- 

 tical position, it will do, I think, for the 

 Minotaur's shaft. I close one end with a 

 plug and fill the tube with a mixture of fine 

 sand and moist clay soil, packing the mix- 

 ture in layers with a ramrod. This column 

 will be the plot of ground allotted to the 

 digger to work in. 



But it must be kept upright and completed 

 with different accessories essential to success- 

 ful operation. For this purpose, three bam- 

 boo canes are planted in the earth contained 

 in a large flower-pot. Joined at their tips, 

 they form a tripod, a frame supporting the 

 whole structure. The tube is set up in the 



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