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Yet another ridiculous idea - highlight LIFT because the hare's name is Jack?

Just got the puzzle done having struggled with 14d (it is TEETEE isn't it?) and wanted to offer my thoughts on the last step. By 'lifting' the first four letters of 19d - I would create a hinge - we would have HARE with consecutive letters in a straight line and also an allusion to the final act of discovery. And the word is in the SEARCH AREA in the grid.
Plausible?

YOU is in a straight line but VEE isn't. However - unbelievably - there's also TEETEE, which is. And so is UU (= W?), but they can't all be forced into one straight line.

I'm getting so crazed now that I seriously thought that BBTEETEE might signify 'four consecutive letters in a straight line', pointing to an echo of the puzzle's title as rendered by a stammerer: 'Let's d-dig for the b-buried t-treasure, you f-fellows!'

Is "the search area" to which reference is made the SEA starting 4D then the RCH to its right etc? If so then whatever it is we're looking for is surely to the NW of the puzzle from there, possibly including those letters as the boundary. Or is "the search area" something else entirely?

If you highlight all those contiguous letters in the grid that could spell out 'search area' in order, including diagonally and the double entry 'ER', you get the shape of a hare (which would be consistent with the pictures in Masquerade, all of which had a hidden hare in them). Now I just need to work out how to make the instructions fit the theory.

How many cells?

Thirteen. You could read the instruction as having a double meaning: a) you need to reveal a 'hare' (as confirmed by those four consecutive letters in a straight line in the preamble) by b) highlighting those contiguous letters in the grid which could make the 'search area'.

I'm not seeing anything that looks like a hare shape!!! I think this is one that I am going to have to call it a day on.

So the letters I have are the A of Antres; SEA and ER of Sea Ice and its clash with Ramist; ARCHAEA of Archaean; and the first R of Counterfleury. Invert your head 90 degrees and you have a crouching bunny.

Hmm! I salute your ingenuity and your imagination. (And I suppose, having reached post #80, I ought to salute, as the man said, everyone's indefatigability.) What do others think?