The seals were first examined and declared intact.

Then Dr. Leidy pushed a thin knife-blade between the slates at the
unprotected corner, marked by the arrow on the sketch.

Then Mr. Sellers pushed in a thick knife-blade a little to one side of
Dr. Leidy's. (The exact place is marked on the rim of the slate
itself.) Both the blades were thrust straight in--Dr. Leidy's exactly at
the corner, and Mr. Sellers's at the point marked, and neither of them
was worked about between the slates.

The slates were thus separated by the thick knife-blade about one-tenth
of an inch.

The seals were not broken by this.

While the slates were thus separated, it was noticed that the wood was
discolored and rubbed glossy on the sides of the crack.

Mr. Sellers then removed the tape, seals and screws.

The slate being opened, no pencil was found and no pencil-marks appeared
on the slate.

The rims were worn smooth and blackened at the corner where the slates
could be separated; this was very distinct.

Some soap-stone dust, which Dr. Koenig identified under a microscope as
the same with a remaining fragment of the pencil inserted (which Mr.
Furness had preserved), was found rubbed into the same corner, showing