The most extensive slate-quarries in Great Britain are those near Bangor, in Wales, from which slate is shipped to all parts of the world. The slate occupies the greater part of the distance from Snowdon to the Menai Straits. Upwards of two thousand men are employed in these quarries; and the proprietor is said to gain from thirty to forty thousand pounds per annum by them. Although this one is the largest, yet there is one in Cumberland in which the slate is found more remarkably situated. This is Hourston Crag, a mountain near Buttermere Lake, about two thousand feet above the level of the lake, and nearly perpendicular. On account of the difficulty of access, the workmen take their provisions for the week, and sleep in temporary huts on the summit. During the winter months they are generally involved in clouds, and not unfrequently blocked up by the snow. The slate is conveyed on sledges down a zigzag path cut in the rock, one man attending to prevent the acceleration of the descent. When the slate is emptied at the bottom the sledge is carried back on the man’s shoulders to the summit. Notwithstanding the value of slate, few quarries are worked to a very great depth, or have subterranean galleries like mines. There is one, however, near Charleville, in France, which is an exception to this rule. The mouth of the mine is near the summit of a hill; the bed inclines forty degrees to the horizon, and is about sixty feet in thickness, but the extent and depth are unknown. It has been worked by a principal gallery to the depth of four hundred feet, and many lateral galleries have also been driven, extending about two hundred feet on the side of the main gallery. Twenty-six ladders are so placed as to give passage to the workmen and carriage for the slate. Of the sixty feet which constitutes the thickness of the bed of slate, about forty are good slate, the rest being mixed with quartz. The slate is cut into blocks of about two hundred pounds each, called _faix_; each workman, in his turn, carrying them on his back to the very mouth of the pit, mounting all or part of the twenty-six ladders, according to the depth of the bed where he may be working. When brought to the surface, these blocks are split into thick tables called _repartons_, by means of a chisel and mallet; and these repartons are divided by similar means into roofing-slates.