OF CORNWALL, g 5 
If this quarry was fituated nearer to a good harbour, much 
greater advantage might be made of it ; but all the ftone exported, 
muft be carried by land to a little cove, called Portiffik, four miles 
ofl, on the North coaft, where no fhips of burthen can fafely take 
in their loading ; and what is not exported, is difperfed in the neigh - 
bonrnood by an expeniive land-carriage. In fome places f we have a 
very red flat in fmall fhivers, the only ufe of which, as far as I have 
learnt, is, that it ferves the mafon and carpenter to line and mark 
out their work. 
In the next place let us take a view of thofe Hones which confift sect.vi. 
of a larger grit, and a more compounded nature, than what are gone ^ om '^ n ^ ree_ 
before. And, firff, of the fiee-ftone, or lapis arenaceus : This is of two 
foits; the free-ftone confiding of fand and fpar, and that which conflfts 
of a fand and quartz. The pureft free-ftone (I mean, that neareft 
to the natures of Portland, Oxford, and Bath-ftone) that I have 
feen railed in Cornwall, and indeed the only one that may be ftridly 
fo called, as far as I yet know, is found in the parifhes of Carantoc 
and Lower St. Columb, in the latter of which parifhes it makes a 
Jlratum, about twelve feet thick, at New-Kaye, where this done 
may be had in great quantities, and of almoft any dimenfions, 
nearly level with the furface of the ground, and contiguous to the 
fea. Its grit is of a fmall yellowifh fand, cemented together by 
fpar. That which has been expofed to the air for any time is very 
ham,^ as we may fee in the old church and tower of Carantoc, 
which are built in great part of this ftone : it wholly diffolves in aqua 
forth ; it weighs to water as 2 — £ to 1. It imbibes water plenti- 
fully, and retains it too ; and coniequently would imbibe the moift 
cement, and make a compact clofe wall, dry as brick. If a quarry 
of this ftone were properly opened, no gentleman in Cornwall 
needed to fend to Portland ; for, without queftion, this ftone, 
thougn not altogether fo fine, would ferve all the purpofes of that j 
and it is fomewhat furprifing, that fuch a treafure as this ftone might 
prove with management, fhould lie bare to the eye, and fo conve- 
nient for water-carriage, and yet hitherto negle&ed. This is the 
only perfect free-ftone which I have feen in Cornwall ; but in feveral 
places on the North coaft, we find a ftone of the fame ftrudure 
and materials, though incompleat, and in a ftate of immaturity, as I 
imagine, having never arrived to a hardnefs fufficient for ufe. Thefe 
imperfed ftones which are fpread here and there among the Gwythian 
and Piran fands, are the accidental formations of a thinly difperfed fparry 
or corallin juice, blown up, together with the fpray of the fea, in 
1 In the parifli of Conftantine, and elfewhere. 
quantity 
