Granite. 17 



The manner in which the granite is usually split out of the quarries 

 is this. A number of holes, of a quadrangular form, a little more 

 than an inch wide, and two or three inches deep, are drilled into the 

 rock, at intervals of a few inches, in the direction in which it is wish- 

 ed to separate the mass. Iron Wedges, having cases of sheet iron, 

 are then driven at the same time, and with equal force, into those cav- 

 ities ; and so prodigious is the power thus exerted, that masses of ten; 

 twenty, thirty, and even fifty and sixty feet long, and sometimes half 

 as many wide, are separated. These may be subdivided in any di- 

 rection desired ; and it is common to see masses thus split, till their 

 sides are less than a foot wide, and their length from ten to twenty 

 feet. In this state they are often employed as posts for fences. 



Respecting the price of the granite from the quarries that have 

 been described, I have not been able to obtain much information. At 

 Fitchburg, I was told that it was sold at the quarries, well dressed, 

 at forty cents the superficial foot ; and at Squam, at forty-five cents. 



The cost of hammering and fine dressing granite in Boston, in the 

 style of the Tremont House, I have been credibly informed, is about 

 thirty cents the superficial foot. Ordinary work, however, is front 

 twenty-five to thirty cents; and not unfrequently, even as low as 

 twenty cents. 



Concord and Hallowell granite costs about fifty cents per foot in 

 Boston ; but are now little used. 



Posts for store-fronts cost about thirty four cents per foot in Bos- 

 ton. The columns of the Hospital were obtained for about one dol- 

 lar per foot. 



To show how rapidly the pride' of granite has fallen, I would 

 state on the authority of a respectable architect in Boston, that the 

 cost of the blocks of the CJuincy granite for the Bunker Hill monu- 

 ment, delivered at Charlestown in a rough state, was thirteen cents, 

 three mills, per foot ; and the cost of the unhewn stone for the church 

 built last year in Bowdoin street, Boston, was fifteen cents : but six 

 years before, the rough duincy granite, for the United States' Branch 

 Bank, cost two dollars per foot. 



I have now given an account of the most extensive and important 

 quarries of granite and sienite, in the eastern part of the State. Gran- 

 ite is wrought more or less, however, not merely in all the towns 

 through which its ranges pass, but also in other places, in their vi- 

 cinity ; large blocks of it having been removed thither by diluvial 

 action in former times. 



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