He employed masons to chisel the stone used for revetting, and in places the stones fit well and truly one upon the other, while an enormous amount of rock must have been blasted to excavate the trenches.

" "Why so?" "Sometimes the top of a table, or other similarly arranged piece of furniture, is removed by the person wishing to conceal an article; then the leg is excavated, the article deposited within the cavity, and the top replaced.

Egypt, I chanced to learn how a certain Arab contracted to excavate a big stone weighing ever so many tons, and which the learned savant could not see how they were ever going to get out of the deep hole.

But it is, of course, easier to dredge out of water than to excavate in the dry.

The material excavated from the Culebra channel will aggregate nearly one hundred million cubic yards.

At length I determined to excavate a subterraneous room or cellar under the original room.

plunge &c 310; sound, fathom, plumb, cast the lead, heave the lead, take soundings, make soundings; dig &c (excavate) 252.

V. be concave &c adj.; retire, cave in. render concave &c adj.; depress, hollow; scoop, scoop out; gouge, gouge out, dig, delve, excavate, dent, dint, mine, sap, undermine, burrow, tunnel, stave in.

Apparently it had been devised to excavate holes rather than to explode, and when we asked questions about it we speedily ascertained that our guide did not care to discuss the gun which had inflicted this particular bit of damage.

The ground on which it stands being much filled up and only half of the Arch appearing, the rest remaining buried in the earth, it was judged adviseable to excavate all around it in order to come to the pedestal; so that now there is a walled enclosure all around it and into this enclosure it is a descent of at least eighteen feet from the ground outside.

On this particular occasion talk ran on Kadampur requirements, and somebody opined that another tank for bathing and drinking purposes ought to be excavated at once; he did not say by whom.

Besides, afterwards, and during the autumn of 1858, the Canadian Government expended $20,000 in deepening and widening the inner end of the channel excavated by the United States.

{268} This is an error: M. Botta made the first attempt to excavate the Ninevite remains at Khorsabad.

Suppose a few thousand years hence our civilization to have become extinct, and that some antiquary from the antipodes should visit this desolate hill to excavate, like Layard at Nineveh, for relics of the old Americans.

Each day be tidings brought me at what rate The moat extends which here we excavate.

It happened that the fountain of the garden was out of repair, and the workmen engaged upon it had had to excavate a passage under the garden wall.

Behind this rock, which was barely sufficient shelter for his head, he had excavated a pit sufficient to shelter his crouching body and the sand which he removed for this purpose had been spread evenly over the slope so that no suspicion might be created in the most watchful eye.

Luckily we had a pickaxe and a shovel lying out behind the house, so taking off my sheepskin jacket and balaclava, I started off to excavate the hole which I proposed should form a sort of cellar.

By paying for it I could get permission to excavate on any property owned by Christians.

I expect he tried pretty hard to get the Turks to let him excavate for them.

He found it convenient to employ me as a tub to the whale, and, having first excited the insular jealousy against archaeological intrusion by foreigners, and inducing his clique of subordinate intriguers to oppose my operations, though the Christian population in general were in favor of permitting me to excavate wherever I liked, he made them the concession of refusing me the permission I sought.

And having reached this pit, the sons of Sagara began to excavate it.

I went out there with a few peasants, had them excavate a little, and, behold!

May the General Government exercise power and jurisdiction over the soil of a State consisting of rocks and sand bars in the beds of its rivers, and may it not excavate a canal around its waterfalls or across its lands for precisely the same object? Giving to the subject the most serious and candid consideration of which my mind is capable, I can not perceive any intermediate grounds.

Moles, instead of burying themselves deeply, then continue to excavate near the surface, and shrew mice are constantly in search of food.