106 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
DONATIONS TO THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION 
MUSEUM, SESSION OF 1899 TO 1900. 
A Fenian’s bayonet and belt, picked up after the engagement 
at Ridgeway. 
An old wooden plough of 1812, made by an early settler in the 
Township of Ancaster. 
A pair of steel candle snuffers about the same age. 
A portion of the Judge Logie’s botanical collection. 
A curious relic of an old cannon ball from a quarry on a farm 
south of the Hamilton Asylum, and probably used with many others, 
as in several quarries of the United States : 
“The method pursued with the cannon balls is to start the block 
of stone away by a light blast, and then between the quarry face 
and the block several of the smaller solid shot, usually the four inch 
sort, are dropped down into the aperture. Two men with crowbars 
give the block a little shake, and the instant the block moves in the 
slightest manner forward the shot take up their ‘ purchase’ on the 
space made, when the large cannon balls, some measuring 14 or 15 
inches and weighing 200 or 300 pounds, are dropped into the top of 
the gap. Now, the slightest outward jar by levers on the big stone 
send these heavy cannon balls dropping downward of their own 
weight, until, with an easy forward motion, the cube goes over on its 
face. 
‘“‘ These shot do away with any driving ; of necessity their great 
weight in proportion to their size forces them downward, and their 
form prevents any chance of backward setting of the block. 
‘“ These cannon balls are also used as rollers, as they take up 
and go over the inequalities of the quarry surface, and can be rolled 
in any direction without resetting, thus doing away with the old style 
wooden rollers. 
“They are also used to smother heavy clearing out blasts. Heavy 
rope mats are thrown over the surface where the blast has been set, 
