Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/564

 454 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [Jan., the other, on which the teams of the several tramwaj^s were at work ; the numbers of quarrymen employed, exca- vating and cutting the slates, who seemed to swarm in every direction, some slung in rope baskets, and others on wooden platforms, suspended by ropes over the face of the cliffs ; the underground galleries, through which the tramways run ; the pumping engines; the heaps of slate lying in every direc- tion ; and, lastlv, the hydraulic lifts by means of which the slates are brought up, from each of the lower terraces, to the surface. The owner, Colonel Pennant, has ac- quired an enormous fortune by the working of these quarries ; and owns, in the immediate neighborhood, an im- mense castellated mansion, called Pen- rhyn Castle, most romantically situated on the Menai Straits ; on which money has been lavished, with an unsparing hand, to render it one of the most su- perb and magnificent residences in Eng- land. Some conception may be formed of it, when we state, that, of the two en- trance gates, one cost £12,000, and the other £10,000 ! To him, however, much credit must be given, for the very generous and liberal manner, in which he has provided accommodation for the large body of laborers, through whose toil he has become rich. About a mile from the quarries a vil- lage has sprung up, to which has been given the name of Bethesda, inhabited exclusively by the quarrymen and their families, amounting in all to 11,000 souls. Colonel Pennant has erected here a number of model dwelling-houses, which are rented at very low terms ; and he has built, at his own expense, a very handsome church, reading-rooms, and a national school- house. The export of these Welsh slates has, of late years, received a severe check by the opening of valuable quarries, in different parts of the United States, for instance, in Vermont, New York Pennsylvania and Maryland. The principal ones in Vermont are in West Castleton and Poulteney, Rutland county, and in Guilford, Windham county. Operations were there com- menced in 1852; and they are now being carried on by several independent associations. Though these quarries are of no great depth, the beds have been traced many miles in length, and the slates obtained, fully equal in quality to the Welsh, and are excavated with great facilit3 r. In New York, slate is found at Gran- ville and Hoosic, Washington county ; and the formation crosses northern New Jersey, and is worked near Newton, in Sussex county, and on the Delaware river. On the north side of this river, it ranges across Northampton and Le- high counties, Pennsylvania, the north line being on the Blue, or Kittatinny Mountain. The Lehigh quarries are near the foot of the same mountain, about two miles from the Lehigh Water Gap. They were first opened in 1848 and in 1852. The quantity produced was 2,500 squares of roofing slate, and 800 cases of school slates, each case holding about 100, and the production has been increasing annually ever since. In Lehigh county, alone, there are some thirty slate quar- ries, all worked, and producing, in the aggregate, about 25,000 squares of roofing slate during the year, worth $15,000 at the quarry. The best description of slates — re- garded by the dealers as superior in quality — are obtained from the Peach Bottom quarries, on the Susquehanna river, in Maryland. Good slate is found still further south, in Pike county, in northwestern Georgia. We have, as yet, only regarded slate in its adaptation for roofing purposes ; but it has been most successfully intro- duced into use, for a variety of other objects, which we can only here briefly enumerate. The thicker sheets obtained in the splitting are employed as grave- stones, flagging, billiard-tables, mantel-