MD3PAD 301-0303

[Toby G Levy]

        Dolly says that she first held a mariner's compass at the age of
nine and was fascinated by it's movements.

        Dixon responds by telling her about his circumferentor.

vw#71: circumferentor - A surveying instrument, for taking horizontal
angles and bearings; a surveyor's compass. It consists of a compass
whose needle plays over a circle graduated to 360[deg], and of a
horizontal brass bar at the ends of which are standards with narrow
slits for sighting, supported on a tripod by a ball and socket joint.

vw#72: fell - An upland stretch of open country; a moor.

vw#73: cryptoscope - early term for a simple x-ray fluoroscope.

        Dolly says that Lord Calvert of Maryland thinks Dixon to be a
Wizard because of his surveying skills.  Dixon says it's ok with him if
people want to believe that basic science is magic.

        Dolly suggests that the commissioners think that Dixon can make
them rich, his circumferentor dowsing for iron, like "Lord Lepton, to
whose ill-reputed  Plantation you must be drawn..."  Mason and Dixon will
turn up at the Lepton's about a hundred pages later in the book. Lepton
runs an iron-plantation (digging up iron?) and has bawdy parties at his
"mansion."

        Chapter 31 begins on page 302.  It is now late December. Mason
and Dixon awake to be startled by the quiet outdoors.  They can actually
hear birds chirping.  Dixon suggests that it must be Christmas.  Mason
wants Dixon to go out into the street to see if he can determine why it
is so quiet.  Dixon fears for his life but goes. He decides to dress
like a Quaker. Dixon tells Mason that Dolly and Molly love to discuss
ways of improving Mason's appearance. Mason decides to follow Dixon out
into the street.

Toby