360 X3i^ttieraIog2- 



Slate. — A very important source of employment and 

 enterprize in the Lake District exists in the slate-quarries, 

 the most extensive of which now in operation are in an im- 

 portant displacement of the Brathay flag-rock at Kirkby- 

 Ireleth. The slate obtained in this formation is of a dark 

 colour, whilst that quarried from the middle slate-rock at 

 Coniston, Langdale, Rydal, and other places is of a pale 

 green hue ; the most beautiful of all, and which always 

 commands the readiest market, being got from a quarry at 

 Hodge Close, in Tilberthwaite. The tourist passing through 

 the Langdales and Tilberthwaite to Coniston will be struck 

 with the enormous heaps of debris indicating the positions of 

 abandoned slate-works; and the caverns and galleries in 

 some of these will amply repay the trouble of inspection. 

 On the eastern and southern sides of Coniston Old Man 

 too are numerous waste heaps, shewing where slate of fine 

 quaUty was obtained formerly. Operations have been 

 renewed in some of these works, but only upon a limited 

 scale. At an abandoned quarry on Walna Scar, slate and 

 flags were obtained beautifully striated with broad ribbon- 

 like marks, crossing the cleavage-line and showing how the 

 slate-rock was originally formed by successive layers of 

 aqueous deposit. These may be examined by the tourist 

 descending into the vale of Duddon from Coniston, in the 

 heap of slate debris lying a little to the left of the road about 

 half way down Walna Scar, just before entering the first 

 large enclosure. The slate-works in the stupendous preci- 

 pice called Honister Crag, also in the green-slate rock, are 

 remarkable for their altitude above the pass leading from 

 Borrowdale to Butter mere, and from the manner of bringing 

 the slate down upon sledges, which was also practised at 

 Coniston. 



It is scarcely requisite to notice the flags, lime, marble, 



