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-m erg - several feet under these earthy materials : inHtt) ’ tle rock rises to the surface. After this, the quarry-Wj their way ; following it with irregular windings,li8ef u i° “ e ^ind them refuse in greater quantity than the■The IUater which they raise.

Ih^nj a ston y surfaces which are principally met with ine °f two very distinct kinds: the one hard, and of ac °ntexture, provincially denominated rag, or Kentishh «Uock* ot * ler of a soft crumbly nature, provincially termedfirst s ‘ .H'e quarrymen are in the practice of dividing they ‘ mto two kinds ; what they call the common-rag ,

; Cor k-stone, the latter being their principal object in^Uch 1 . I11Iriense works. It has, in its general appearance,j Sen, hlance to the strong gray limestones which are^indifferent parts of this country; but when minutelyfi*”-. tjj a b y means of a glass, its fracture and contexture

® characters of the Devonshire marbles : except that« r am of ♦i,:„ _* -•__r.

«ke

col,

of this sort of stone is somewhat coarser. InJW, °°> it differs from those marbles, having a greater-rent' 11 ' 16 to l ' ie Yorkshire limestones. It is used forlioaa P Ur P°ses; much of it is sent to the neighbourhood' v here it is burnt into lime for the use of theJ&e bu,. n ters 5 who, for some reason or other, chiefly employ

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alk, r 1 . 10rn this material, or stone, instead of that frompo vt - t 18 likewise made use of as a building material ;V °tlier°f Jlarly ln P e( ^ es tal s , for the posts of cattle-sheds,""' itiw , ar m-oflices. It is hewn with stone-masons’ axes,

tolerable freedom.

C ter

e ‘y durable, as some part of the basement of West-tlig J ^ e y a Ppears to have been built with the stoneJ^aed Se Quarries. In this case, it seems to have beenfi !lt i 0 n tn °°t' 1 ’ an( l the surface still remains with little.’ ,r itu ;ss . having withstood the attacks of time with great.fitf.j. •’ 11 being, even now, diflicult to detect a loosenedJ'h e £ ‘be work.

Hb ^ are 0100 ra S* st one comprehends all the different kindsat) , 11164 with in these quarries, except that of the(lift tfu e ^ la * ; w bicli is of the liassocky nature ; thoughk r ' ;, 't f t Unrn ’ Xe d rag is a distinct sort, having charactersojAe r ed 0ttl any l ' ie °tl iers - In colour, it inclines more>tj ef ' v ise ’ ° r l* ver colour, than that of the cork-stone, butJ? r ai(l - r ® aern bles it considerably. Viewed with a glass,to has ? ner > a 'id the fracture flint-like.

5S£ *• 7T s come into very extensive use. Itsc e ‘®> ea,..j 3 are —carbonate of lime, with a little magnesia,I? 8 r HaH ly mat ter, 6.5 ; oxide of iron, 0.5 ; and carbona-, i lag 8r > °-4 = 100.

W ' v hit P ° c by-stone appears, to the naked eye, to be of a. "kr „ sar- 3 - -• - •

S'asi

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k t| f . 4 be ;®, an(3 y quality ; and its fracture is the same ; but

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fia>[ lllc ki v 8 .‘ a8s > its grain is fine, its contexture uniform, and

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black t g l j S P erse< ^ wlt b sma H seed-like granules, of a

ea r i ' '- u *uur, as to give it a gray appearance; some-? atl d ev 'dent impressions of shells. Its texture is! fitlj 1 s and'iM e ’ crui nbling easily between the fingers into a; t - *ke powder. It will not burn into good lime,h-ki ^incin , a ' ra ° st wholly calcareous,k .‘v suk ase is that of forming a loose friable sort ofjn some places, where it is admirably suited

»ub.

■Sfi*

soil,

■ — “me places, wuere n is aumiraoiy suitedft 1 * a s of „° saintfoin, and some other crops of the plant8 qua tr ; le / r uit-tree kinds.

%ij all ,f s In several other counties contain stony mate-, f) 1 8<1 to a e f e different kinds, which are wrought and

c:<; f ar,et yofuses.

\ 0 8llt pa rtg l ? ai 'ble are wrought in several districts in8 W ays °!l the country, and afford great advantages inn " . n Sussex they have a marble, which, when18 used for ornamenting chimney-pieces, and

other purposes. It is equal in quality and beauty to mostsorts, when highly polished. For square building and pav-ing, it is also a material scarcely to be excelled. By burning,it likewise affords a very valuable manure, equal, and bysome thought superior, to chalk, being cheaper to those whoare near the places from which it is dug. It is found themost perfect about Kirdford, at the depth of from ten totwenty feet under ground, in flakes nine or ten inches inthickness, and is called Petworth marble. It was muchemployed in building the cathedral at Canterbury ; the pil-lars, monuments, vaults, pavement, &c., being formed of it;and the archbishop’s chair is one entire piece of it. Marble is got in some of the counties in the middle of the island, asDerbyshire, Nottinghamshire , &c.

At Beacon-hill, near Newark , a blue stone for hearths isobtained, which approaches to marble, and is capable ofburning into lime. And, in the county of Derby much goodmarble is raised in different places.—In Lancashire thereare quarries of fine black marble, besides stones whichapproach to, and take on the polish of marbles. In many ofthe western and northern parts of Yorkshire , marble of vari-ous kinds is found, some much resembling, and others supe-rior, in closeness of texture and distinctness of colours, tothat which is wrought in Derbyshire. Also a stone, whichgreatly resembles the marble of that county, and which iscapable of receiving much such a polish, and is nearly of thesame colour, mixture, and appearance.

In the county of Inverness, likewise, marble of the greatestvariety of colours, and of the most beautiful shades, has beenmet with in Ben-Nevis ; and inexhaustible quarries of it lieuntouched in the islands which belong to it.

Besides, this sort of material exists in immense quantitiesin quarries in many other parts of the kingdom.

Chalk is a material which is raised from quarries and pits,mostly in the southern parts of the country, as in Sussex,Surrey, Kent, Essex, Berkshire, Hertfordshire , &c. It existsin vast ranges and tracts in most of these districts, whence itis dug up from quarries, at different depths, according tocircumstances, exposed in sheds to dry when wet, and thenconverted into lime for various uses, by means of fire : or itis employed in its broken and powdery state, without under-going the above processes, by merely digging it out of suchplaces. In some parts, as in Kent, and the neighbouringdistricts, it is often dug and raised from considerable depths,from beds of very great thicknesses. And near Beading, inBerkshire, there is a stratum of this substance, which isthirty feet in thickness. It is there used and dug out formanure, and occasionally as a building material; for thelatter of which purposes it is very durable. The remains ofthe abbey of Hurley, and of the ancient chapel, now theparish church, built wholly of chalk, in the reign of Williamthe Conqueror , are still as fresh and sound as if they hadbeen the works of the last century. Chalk, when onceindurated by the air, has a remarkable property of resistingthe action of the weather.

Granite is a stony substance which is found to exist insome of the southern parts of the country, as well as in thoseof the north, but it abounds much more in the latter.

In the western parts of Cornwall , it is in great plenty inthe districts of Penwith and Kirrier, presenting itself inlarge slabs on all the rocky hills or tors, as well as in thewaste moors and valleys, and appearing in detached spots,even in the shelvy slaty tracts. It is of different colours andtextures, being adapted to a great variety of uses and pur-poses, as those of building, and being wrought into columnarmasses, eight or ten feet in length, for supporters to sheds,out-houses, &c., and as gate-posts, and bridges over brooks,