Life was regulated at once and work began in perfect order.
Careful boring had established the nature of the ground, and digging was begun on November 4th.

That day Barbicane called his foremen together and said to them-- "You all know, my friends, why I have called you together in this part of Florida.

We want to cast a cannon nine feet in diameter, six feet thick, and with a stone revetment nineteen and a half feet thick; we therefore want a well 60 feet wide and 900 feet deep.

This large work must be terminated in nine months.

You have, therefore, 2,543,400 cubic feet of soil to dig out in 255 days--that is to say, 10,000 cubic feet a day.