Quarrying with Lorries in Windermere.
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THERE are not many motor lorries that can boast of such unusual and precarious duties as the • Leyland machines which are working at the slate quarries near Windermere. The quarries in question are 10 miles from Windermere, which is the nearest goods station, and two miles from the nearest road, namely, that running between Elterwater and Coniston.
From this point the journey to the quarries becomes noteworthy, if not actually thrilling—A small cart track from the road gradually becomes a mountain path, ascending in innumerable twists and twines the side of the Lingmoor Mountain, with a none too generous clearance of 10 ins. on either side of the wheels, whilst the gradient varies from 1 in 10 te 1 in 3.
The last quarter of a mile of the joure nay to the quarries, which are situated more than 1,000 ft. above the vallley, is completed on a precipitous ledge covered with slate chips, and it, is distinctly in
need of a wall to prevent a side-slipping vehicle from plunging headlong into the valley below.
If the ascent is exciting, the descent must be a positive adventure, for the vehicles return each laden with four tons of .slate—a feat necessitating the highest efficiency in both man and machine and very reliable brakes