Apart from building purposes, granite slabs are largely used for headstones in graveyards. This monumental department employs a great number of skilled workmen. There are over 80 granite-polishing yards in Aberdeen. Here too the modern methods of cutting and polishing the stones by machinery and pneumatic tools have greatly reduced the manual labour as well as improved the character of the work. Unfortunately the export trade in these monumental stones has somewhat declined owing to prohibitive tariffs. In 1896 America took £55,452 worth of finished stones; in 1909 the value had fallen to £38,000. The tariffs in France have also been against the trade, but an average of nearly 10,000 tons is sent to continental countries. Strangely enough, granite in the raw state is itself imported to Aberdeen. Swedish, Norwegian and German granites are brought to Aberdeen, to [Illustration: Granite Works, Aberdeen] be shaped and polished. These have a grain and colouring absolutely different from what is characteristic of the native stone, and the taste for novelty and variety has prompted their importation. In 1909 as much as 27,308 tons were imported in this way. Celtic and Runic crosses, recumbent tombs, and statuary are common as exports. The stone is also used for the humbler purpose of street paving and is shipped to London and other ports in blocks of regular and recognised sizes. These are called “setts,” and of them 30,000 tons are annually transmitted to the south. Stones of a larger size are also exported for use as pavement kerbs. The presence of quarries is not so detrimental to the atmosphere and the landscape as coal mines, and yet the heaps of _débris_, of waste and useless stone piled up in great sloping ridges near the granite quarries, are undoubtedly an eyesore. To-day a means has been found whereby this blot on the landscape is partially removed. The waste _débris_ is now crushed by special machinery into granite meal and gravel, and used as a surface dressing for walks and garden paths—a purpose it serves admirably, being both cleanly and easily dried. Not only so but great quantities of the waste are ground to fine powder, and after being mixed with cement and treated to great pressure become adamant blocks for pavements. These adamant blocks have now superseded the ordinary concrete pavement just as it superseded the use of solid granite blocks and Caithness flags. This ingenious utilisation of the waste has solved the problem which was beginning to face many of the larger quarries, namely, how they could dispose of their waste without burying valuable agricultural land under its mass.