175 



a stationary steam engine. Some of the party descended 

 the steep and precipitous stairs almost to the bottom of 

 the quarry to inspect the rift made in the solid ledge by 

 the great blast recently made under the supervision of the 

 foreman, J. Henry Jones, by which a mass of rock weigh- 

 ing by actual computation 40,000 tons had been rent 

 asunder and lifted from its solid foundation. This was 

 accomplished by the drilling of twenty holes, each eight 

 feet ill depth, and the use of 425 pounds of powder. The 

 fissure made is two hundred feet in length and eighty-five 

 wide at the widest part, and enabled Mr. Jones to get a 

 bottom to the solid mass from which to work upon. 



Two blasts by the electric process were made while the 

 company were present, each moving a huge rock and sep- 

 arating it from the ledge without any destructive crash or 

 fall. Upon the wharf and at points near the road and 

 about the quarries, are piles of block paving stones, used 

 extensively in the cities, and in some places in the neigh- 

 borhood for mortar-wall foundations, for which it seems 

 to.be well adapted. 



The company, that operates these quarries, is the Cape 

 Ann Granite Company. It owns a hirge tract of land, 

 extending back from the water across Washington street 

 and up the hill about one mile, covering an area of 175 

 or 200 acres. The present proprietors purchased the land 

 in 1869, and began work in April of the same year. The 

 company employs from 300 to 600 men according to the 

 state of business. It owns several tenement houses, which 

 are rented to the workmen having families, and a large 

 boarding house, where those without families are boarded. 

 A store, post office and telegraph office are managed by 

 the company. The extended pier, from which vessels are 

 loaded, was made of refuse granite. A railway was laid 

 in 1870 from the end of this wharf up the hill, and has 



