Id Mr Stevenson on the Building Mate Hals 



inarble quarries reminded me of the celebrated sandstone pits 

 of the ancient city of Caen in Normandy, which are not only 

 remarkable as having produced the materials for the old Lon- 

 don Bridge, but as presenting a mode of working very similar 

 to that pursued in the coal-pits of this country ; the blocks, 

 being excavated at a great depth under the ground, are 

 conveyed in subterranean passages to shafts, through which 

 they are raised to the surface by horse-power, as in the Ame- 

 rican quarries. The price of the American marble varies 

 according to its quality and kind. The carriage of the ma- 

 terials, owing to the badness of the roads, forms a very ex- 

 pensive item in all the public works, and is, of course, regu- 

 lated by the distance of transport; but the white marble costs 

 about 4s. lOd., and the blue about 4s. per cubic foot at the 

 quarries, and although this may seem a very moderate price 

 for marble, which in this country costs from 15s. to L.2 a 

 cubic foot, still, when used instead of stone throughout the 

 whole thickness of the wall of a dwelling-house, or the pier 

 of a bridge, it becomes, even at the lower price I have men- 

 tioned, a costly material. 



The Massachusetts quarries, which are at a place called 

 Stockbridge, produce white and blue marbles, and the Ver- 

 mont quarries, which are near Lake Champlain, furnish black 

 and white marbles. 



Those I have enumerated are the principal quarries in the 

 United States; but from the circumstances of their being 

 so much confined to particular localities, and the manner in 

 which they are worked, it is evident that their produce can- 

 not be applied by any means to the general wants of the 

 country ; and consequently, excepting in the case of buildings 

 on which a good deal of money is to be expended, it is but 

 little employed ; the cost of the material itself, and the ex- 

 pense of carriage, being very considerable. 



The marbles of the United States, according to the account 

 of many intelligent Americans with whom J. conversed on the 

 subject, are not suited for sculpture or very fine ornamental 

 works, or even, indeed, for the capitals of columns, which 

 require superior work; and the marble used for the capi- 

 tals of all the fine buildings throughout the country is im- 



