Geology of Wiltshire. 323 



some distance, but presently narrowing to one line of broad-guage rails, which 

 are continued as far as the first of the Corsham workings, where they terminate 

 opposite the discharging platform, to be more fully described hereafter. From 

 the main roads the workings spread northwards aud westwards, as shown upon 

 the plan, into cora])lex reticulations of great and yearly increasing extent, all 

 of which communicate by means of gent))' falling tramways with the discharg- 

 ing platform. The utilization of gravity as a means of locomotion, is carried 

 out with much completeness throughout the works. In drawing from the Box 

 side, horses are employed to haul the stone only through a portion of the dis- 

 tance ; more than half of it biioi; accumplished by gradients. The natural 

 disposition of the strata has greatly assisted in laying out the quarry thus. 

 The ventilation is very tfBcieut tliruuyhout the quarry. In all colleiies where 

 the ventilatinn is effected by means of upcast and downcast shafts, it is usual to 

 heat the upcast by means of fires, which, increasing the volume and decreasing 

 the weight of the atmospheric column within it, assists in producing a sufficient 

 draught. At Box, however, no artificial stimulus is needed to keep up the 

 circulation. The downcast shaft being here represented by a wide and lofty 

 road entering the hill upon a level, admits air so readily that a few "upcasts " 

 here and there communicating with the surface suffice to establish an abundant 

 current. Nowhere throughout the whole quarries is there anything approaching 

 to a scant supply of oxygen, and the visitor is never conscious of breathing 

 under conditions at all diffeient from those of ordinary life. A walk of about 

 a furlong brings us opposite the point where all the stone taken out is loaded 

 into railwaj'^ trucks, a process effected with great simplicity and economy. The 

 single line of broad-gunge rails which we have hitherto followed, stops here, 

 but it is met and accompanied through the last few hundred yards of its length 

 by a narrow tramroad, about 2-, feet guage, running parallel with the main 

 line, but laid at such a level as to bring the little trollies forming its "rolling 

 stock," to the same height as the larger waggons, into which the blocks are 

 readily shifted by means of two powerful cranes, without any lifting whatever. 

 By this arrangement, a large amount of work is got through in the course of 

 a day. one crane alone being capable of loading up some 6000 feet of stone, or 

 nearly 400 tons in ten hours. This discharging platform, as we have previously 

 named it, is in direct communication with the whole of the workings, every 

 one of which has its own branch of narrow-guage rails ; and along some of 

 these feeder lines the smull trucks are constantly passing with their burdens. 

 Immediately opposite where we stand, is an entrance to the fiist of the Corsham 

 side workings, lying a little ofi" the main road, and approached by a narrower 

 passage cut almost at right angles to it. Turning into this, we shortly find 

 ourselves in a large open space, lighted with tolerable brilliance by many 

 candles, and occupied by a group of workmen all busily engaged in various 

 quarrying operations — some sawing, others hoisting ; some moving great blocks 

 on rollers towards the trollies in waiting, and others manning the handles of a 

 crane occupying the centre of this little amphitheatre. We will make this 

 "working" our pattern card. One uniform system of getting stone prevails, 

 suggested and occasionally slightly modified by the natural peculiarities of tho 

 rock itself. Like almost all other stratified deposits, the Bath oolite lies in 

 " beds," as they are named both by geologists and quarrymen ; the successive 



