

LEARNING TO BLAST 325 



of blasting in conversation with an iron stone friend, who 

 soon told me all I wanted to know. 



I found that, even if we could have bored a hole with 

 the big auger, it would have been useless to fill it with 

 paper or anything of that kind on the top of the powder. 

 The explosion would merely, in such a case, have blown 

 the paper out, as a gun does a wad, and left the gate- 

 post unharmed. The best thing to do was, having made 

 and charged the hole, to plug it up with a mixture of 

 clay and tow, and, of course, to discard the ridiculous 

 old touch-paper, which could not possibly burn through 

 this compound, but to use ordinary string fuse, any 

 amount of which could be easily procured, and it would 

 burn through anything. 



So then I returned, very much wiser in these 

 particulars, and brought with me many yards of fuse 

 and a centre-bit wherewith to bore several small holes 

 in the posts, close together, and thus open out a way 

 for the big auger to get to work. 



The next day was spent in preparations, principally 

 consisting in kneading up clay and tow together into 

 a large, dough-like mass, and testing the length of fuse 

 required to enable anyone to run two or three hundred 

 yards before it was burned out. 



A mallet and rammer were added to the list of tools, 

 which were all placed ready in an outhouse, hidden 

 behind some old wine-cases ; and when the night came, 

 and the good vicar had secured his establishment, when 

 the innocent among the household were asleep, then 

 once again was enacted the scene already described, 

 with safety as before, and with less perturbation on the 

 part of our still reluctant senior. 



I had the powder and clay in my dressing-gown 



