94 NATURAL HISTORY 
deepeft part from the grafs, is judged to be forty fathoms : the 
Jirata in the following order : the green fod, one foot ; a yellow- 
brown clay, two feet ; then the rock, dipping inwards into the hill 
towards the South- Weft, and preferving that inclination from top 
to bottom : at firft the rock is in a lax fhattery ftate, with fhort 
and frequent fiffures, the lamina of unequal thicknefs, and not 
horizontal : thus the rock continues to the depth of ten or twelve 
fathom, all which is good for nothing, and entirely to be rid off ; 
then comes in a firmer brown ftone, which becomes ftill browner 
in the air : this is fit for flatting houfes, and the largeft fize for flat 
pavement, never fweating as the cliff flat which is expofed to the 
fea-air. This is called the top-Jlone , and continues for ten fathom 
deep, the ftone improving fomewhat as you fink, but not at the beft 
till you come to twenty-four fathom deep from the grafs ; then 
rifes what they call the bottom-Jlone , of a grey blue colour, and fuch 
a clofe texture, that on the touch it will found clear, like a piece 
of metal c ; the mafles are firft raifed rough from the rock by 
v/edges driven by fledges of iron, and contain from five to ten, 
twelve, or fourteen feet, fuperficial fquare of ftone : as foon as this 
mafs is freed by one man, another ftone-cutter, with a ftrong wide 
chizel and mallet, is ready to cleave it to its proper thinnefs, which 
is ufually about the eighth of an inch ; the fhivers irregular from 
two feet long, and one foot wide, downwards, to one foot fquare, 
and fometimes ( though feldom) dividing into fuch large flakes as 
to make tables and tomb-ftones. 
In this quarry feveral parties of men work on feparate ftages or 
floors, fome twelve fathom from the grafs, fome twenty, others 
forty fathom deep, according to the portion of ground belonging to 
each party ; the fmall fhattery ftone, not fit for covering houfes, ferves 
to fhore up the rubbifh, to divide the different allotments, and 
fhape the narrow paths up and down the quarry ; all the flat is car- 
ried with no fmall danger from the plot where it rifes, on men’s 
backs, which are guarded from the weight by a kind of leather- 
apron, or rather cufhion ; the carrier difpofes his charge of ftones 
in rows fide by fide, till the area allotted to his partners is full, and 
then horfes are ready to take them off, and carry them by tale to the 
perfon that buys them. The principal horizontal fiffures, which 
divide the Jirata , run from ten to fifteen feet afunder ; they are 
no more than chinks or joints, and contain no heterogeneous foftil. 
The ftone of this quarry weighs to water as 2 — > are to 1 , is not fub- 
ject to rot or decay, to imbibe water, or fplit with falling, as the bottom- 
ftone of Tindagel, and other quarries ; but for its lightnefs, and endur- 
ing weather, is generally preferred to any flat in Great-Britain. 
If 
* Schiftus fiflilis, durus, coerulefcens clangofus. Linn. Syft. Nat. page 158, N°. I. 
