Work on the new Business School, which has hitherto consisted of filling in and levelling the land and of moving the few frame houses that formerly occupied part of the site, took an active and interesting turn yesterday morning, when a steam shovel appeared upon the scene and started excavations for the basements of the new buildings. Dean Donham of the Business School, who happened to be present at the start of the excavations, took charge of the shovel and operated it while the first bucketful of earth was removed.

Two weeks is the time allowed for the completion of the excavation for each of the buildings of the new group. At present only one shovel is at work, but as it is intended to have a number of shovels working later in the season, it is very probable that the dirt will be removed much faster than preliminary estimates indicate.

Since the entire site of the new school must be raised to a grade 18 feet above the river the dirt which is removed will simply be piled around the excavations to increase the height of the land as a whole and it will not be necessary to excavate the entire depth of the basements. In addition to the dirt which will be secured from the excavation work it is estimated that a large amount of earth must still be hauled in to raise the grade to the proposed 18 foot level.

When the work of excavation is completed about two additional weeks are allowed for the completion of the foundations of each of the buildings. Since all the new structures are being constructed on filled-in ground it is necessary to be particularly careful in the foundation work. It is too expensive to dig down to solid rock for a foundation so the buildings will be supported partially on piles and partially on concrete caissons by a process called "floating".

When the foundations have finally been completed work on the brick work of the buildings will start and it is expected to have some of them well on the way to completion by the opening of college in the fall.