West Rutland, Vermont #13703, Huge Block of Marble Being Hoisted from the Quarry, West Rutland, Vt., U.S.A. Keystone View Company, copyright, 1903, by Manufacturer, B. L. Singley, Made in U.S.A. Publishers, Meadville, Pa., New York, N.Y., Portland, Oregon, London, Eng., Sydney, Aus.

The great marble quarries of the United States are at West Rutland, Vermont. Here the marble lies in layers varying in color, thickness, and hardness and entering the hillside at an angle nowhere less than twenty-five degrees. Marble of good quality is seldom found near the surface because of the action of atmospheric forces. The slant must be great enough to carry the strata below the action of frost and sun.

In earlier days, blocks were blasted out and many a good ton of marble spoiled. Now gunpowder is only used for uncovering those solid layers which lie under others that have been spoiled by rain and frost and sun. When the solid marble is reached, blocks are channeled round with drills and then .gadded up. by drilling a line of holes six inches apart into which iron wedges are driven cleaving and raising the blocks from their beds, to be hoisted out by derricks. In the great pits, growing deeper and wider every year, men and engines delve through every season, in sunshine or storm. Copyright 1909, by Keystone View Company.