The puzzle consists in sliding the cubes from square to square, without lifting them or removing them from the box, until they are placed in their natural order. It is easy enough to move the squares up to 12; but to get the last three into order is often a puzzle indeed. If the figures fall in either of the following positions—13, 15, 14; 14, 13, 15; or 15, 14, 13—the problem is unsolvable; it follows, therefore, that the last row must be either 14, 15, 13; or 15, 13, 14. If you get the cubes into either of these positions, you can easily bring them right; but if you cannot, the only way is to begin the game all over again. Several other ways are suggested. Cavendish (Mr. H. Jones) thinks he solves the puzzle by turning the box half round; but as this is only possible when the figures are on circular pieces of wood, his solution merely cuts the knot, instead of unravelling it.
2592. The Thirty-Four Puzzle
This is an adaptation of tho old magic square, which amused the philosophers of old. A sketch of it appears in Albert Durer's painting of Melancholia. Sixteen discs or squares, numbered from 1 to 16, are placed indifferently on the table—or they may be in the fifteen box; and the puzzle is to so arrange them as to make the sum of the figures add up to 34, whether counted up, down, across or angularly. Here is the solution:
This is the simplest; but a more elaborate plan is to so arrange the figures that any form of the blocks will form a square sum of 34. See the annexed solution, which the ingenious in may still further complicate:
2593. Fox and Geese
This old-fashioned game is played on a solitaire board. Seventeen geese occupy the upper part of the board lines, with the fox in the middle, thus: