The patent _fusee_ having been inserted among the powder, with its end about the centre of the charge, and the upper part of the bore having been filled up with dried clay, well forced down with a wooden rammer faced with copper, a length of 3 or 4 inches of the _fusee_ should be left outside the bore, to which the match is to be attached. Having cleared away every thing near the blast which can receive any injury and covered up the machinery of the cranes with strong planks, the mine may be said to be ready for being fired; and, on a signal given, by blowing a horn, all hands retreat to a safe distance, with the exception of the fireman, who then lights the match, and follows the others as fast as possible. If, as already stated, the object in quarrying be to obtain large materials, the bores should, if possible, be deep; and, in that case, the rock will seldom be thrown down in fragments by the blast, but will merely be cracked, and intersected by rents about one inch in width. Recourse must therefore be had to what, in quarry language, is called a _Bull_, which consists in running a quantity of loose powder into the crack which has been made by the blast, at that part where its explosion seems most likely to throw out the cracked or broken mass in various fragments and disengage them from their place in the rock. In _bulling_, perhaps twice as much powder as was used in the bore is loosely poured into the crack, care being at the same time taken to get as much of it to go under the bottom of the rock as possible. After enough of powder has been poured into the crack, a quantity of dried smithy ashes, or dry sand, is run in over the powder, so as completely to cover it, except so much as is required to fire it by; and that coating, which is merely superficial, is employed partly to keep down the powder, and partly for security against its being accidentally fired before all things are ready. The fireman having seen every thing cleared away, gives notice to sound the alarm, when all hands escape to a distance in the direction which is supposed to be the safest. The match is then applied, and the fireman retires, as fast and as far as he can, yet so as if possible to keep in view, during his retreat, the progress of the match. The operation of _bulling_ is far more dangerous than the firing of a bore, as the charge is much greater, and not so well confined, so that many splinters are thrown off, and the direction in which they fly varies continually with the direction of the cracks which the original bore may have produced. As might be expected, by far the greater part of the accidents which occur to firemen in granite quarries, arise from that practice. [Illustration: No. 12]