THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Oct. 1, 1864- 



138 ON THE POSITION AXD MODE OF 



Down and Box Hill workings. I do so, because these mines have had 

 more thought and attention bestowed on them than any others in this neigh- 

 bourhood, and because they are the most extensively developed. It is 

 believed that the Box and Corsham locality has been worked for stone, 

 with more or less activity, for three centuries, but it was not demon- 

 strated that so large an amount of good workable freestone existed in 

 the district until the fact was evidenced by the cutting of the Box- 

 tunnel, which at once exposed the beds, and show r ed that to the north 

 and north-west of the tunnel, on the strike of the beds, there existed 

 what w T e may practically call an inexhaustible supply of valuable free- 

 stone. The cutting of the Box tuunel having opened to view this fact, 

 gave an impulse to the previously limited mining operations of the 

 district. The chief operations are situated on the north side of the 

 tunnel ; the reason of this is, that the rock is found sounder in this 

 direction, and the stone more even in colour, and more regular in 

 quality and texture, than to the south or dip of the stone. The entrance 

 to these workings is driven from the Corsham or eastern end, imme- 

 diately contiguous to the mouth of the Box tunnel, and it is here that 

 the railways of the underground workings join the Great Western Rail- 

 way on the same level. The chief or main road through the workings 

 is carried from this point due west, in a direct line towards the Box Hill 

 escarpment, a distance of one mile and six-eighths ; rising with the 

 strata, for the purpose of keeping on the floor of the workable beds, 

 thus making an incline to the west of about 1 in 40 ; and as the rise to 

 the north is about 1 in 60, advantage has been taken of this, and the 

 works so laid out, that much of the stone can be run on trollies without 

 draught power — that is to say by gravitation — to the loading platform, 

 where it is transferred from the quarry trollies into the railway trucks, 

 which are taken into the mine to receive it. To economise and facilitate 

 the operation of loading, the platform stands on a level a few inches 

 higher than the sides of the railway truck, into which the stone has to 

 be loaded, and by the upper level narrow-guage tramways this platform 

 is placed in direct connection with the whole of the headings or work- 

 ings ; and by its lower level broad-guage railway it is connected with 

 the Great Western Railway. By this loading arrangement, we are 

 enabled to load off into railway trucks from thirty to forty tons in the 

 hour. One uniform system of getting or working the stone prevails 

 throughout the quarries, and this system is an inversion of the mode of 

 working coal. The coal-miner undercuts his coal, that the mass may 

 fall and break, but building-stone so worked would make a valueless 

 rubbish heap. The freestone miner or quarryman has to commence his 

 operations at the roof of the stone. This picking operation is effected 

 by means of adze-shaped picks, on the heads of which longer 

 handles are inserted as the work proceeds, and the men thus 

 make their driving a distance of six or seven feet back into the 

 rock. The width or span of these stalls must of course depend on the 



