serve the same purpose. The result of my meditations was a new kind of Puzzle--new at least to me-- which, now that it has been fairly tested by a year's experience, and commended by many friends, I offer to you, as a newly-gathered nut, to be cracked by the omnivorous teeth which have already masticated so many of your Double Acrostics.

`The rules of the Puzzle are simple enough. Two words are proposed, of the same length: and the Puzzle consists of linking these together by interposing other words, each of which shall differ from the next word in one letter only. That is to say, one letter may be changed in one of the given words, then one letter in the word so obtained, and so on, till we arrive at the other given word. The letters must not be interchanged among themselves, but each must keep to its own place. As an example, the word `head' may be changed into `tail' by interposing the words `heal, teal, tell, tall'. I call the two given words `a Doublet', the interposed words `Links', and the entire series `a Chain', of which I here append an example:--

`It is, perhaps, needless to state that it is de rigueur that the links should be English words, such as might be used in good society.

`The easiest `Doublets' are those in which the consonants in one word answer to consonants in the other, and the vowels to vowels; `head' and `tail' constitute a Doublet of this kind. Where this is not the case, as in `head' and `hare', the first thing to be done is to transform one member of the Doublet into a word whose consonants and vowels shall answer to those in the other member (e.g., `head, herd, here,') after which there is seldom much difficulty in completing the `Chain'.

`I am told that there is an American game involving a similar principle. I have never seen it, and can only say of its investors, "pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt!'

LEWIS CARROLL.'

1. The words given to be linked together constitute a `Doublet', the interposed words are the `Links', and the entire series a `Chain'. The object is to complete the Chain with the least possible number of Links.

2. Each word in the Chain must be formed from the preceding word by changing one letter in it, and one only. The substituted letter must occupy the same place, in the word so formed, which the discarded letter occupied in the preceding word, and all the other letters must retain their places.

3. When three or more words are given to be made into a Chain, the first and last constitute a `Doublet'. The others are called `Set Links', and must be introduced into the Chain in the order in which they are given. A Chain of this kind must not contain any word twice over.

4. No word is admissible as a Link unless it (or, if it be an inflection, a word from which it comes) is to be found in the following Glossary. Comparatives and superlatives of adjectives and adverbs, when regularly formed, are regarded as `inflections' of the positive form, and are not given separately, e.g., the word `new' being given, it is to be understood that `newer' and `newest' are also admissible. But nouns formed from verbs (as `reader' from `read') are not so regarded, and may not be used as Links unless they are to be found in the Glossary.

1. The marks assigned to each Doublet are as follows:--

If it be given without any Set Links, so many marks are assigned to it as there are letters in the two words together (e.g., a four-letter Doublet would have eight marks assigned to it). If it be given with Set