Basalt of the Seventy Seventh Spiral

The Basalt of the Seventy Seventh Spiral is the collective designation for the quarried basalt deposits worked along the inner face of the upper Seventh Spiral, between the aperture marked 77-α and the disused landing at 77-epsilon. It is distinguished from the Basalt of Stillness, with which it is frequently confused, by its granularity and by the fact that the Basalt of the Seventy Seventh Spiral is quarried, cut, and shipped, whereas the Basalt of Stillness is neither.

The deposits were first registered under the Seventh-Spiral Registry in the winter following the Aris Spiral re-cataloguing crisis, at which time approximately four hundred and twelve cut blocks were entered as holdings of the Spiral rather than of any single workshop. This distinction — deposit versus holding — has generated litigation for eleven successive recensions.

Geology and Extraction

The basalt occurs in three seams, designated North, Middle, and Votive by the quarry clerks who opened them. The North Seam is the hardest and is reserved for load-bearing thresholds; the Middle Seam is softer and takes an inscription readily; the Votive Seam is thin, unreliable, and quarried only by request, principally for small commemorative slabs set into the walls of Axiom's Nook.

Extraction proceeds under the standing authority of Quarry Sigma, whose overseers hold that all basalt within the Spiral belongs to the Spiral and may not be sold outward. The quarry's own account book, kept in a hand that has changed four times without changing style, records that between the sealing of the Spiral and the present recension some nine thousand blocks have been raised, of which nine thousand and six cannot be accounted for. The discrepancy is noted without comment on every fourth page.

The Clarification and the Composition Question

The Seventy-Seventh Clarification bears directly on the basalt. Its protections for the composition of the Seventh Alloy were drafted with the quarries in mind: the framers feared that a published analysis of the alloy would expose the proportion of powdered basalt used as a tempering agent, and so render the Spiral's stone quarries legible to outside purchasers. The Clarification accordingly treats the basalt's mineral composition as a guild secret, and the quarry clerks are forbidden to discuss it, even among themselves, above the level of the third landing.

This prohibition has proved difficult to administer. In the matter of the Sealing of the Seventh Spiral, the Clerks of the Seventh Spiral were asked to determine whether a fragment of Middle Seam basalt, carried out of the quarry in a boot, retained its protected character. The Clerks ruled that it did, and that the boot was therefore an instrument of the guild. The owner of the boot petitioned the West Spiral of Unending Debate for its return and has not yet received a reply.

Dispute: The Depth of the Seams

There is no scholarly agreement on how far the seams run. The Seventy-Third Concordance and the Seventy-Seventh Concordance differ in a manner that no recension has resolved. Annex 2 of the Seventy-Third holds that the basalt terminates at the floor of the Sub-Basalt Floors, which are named for lying beneath it and which supply the grey slate used for paving apertures throughout the Spiral. Annex 9 of the Seventy-Seventh, written later and claiming precedence, asserts that the seams continue downward without limit and that the Sub-Basalt Floors are misnamed.

"The stone does not stop because a floor has been given a name; the floor stops because the stone has been given a floor."

— Seventy-Seventh Concordance, Annex 9, marginal note in the hand of the drafting clerk

The Pragmatists of the Seventh Spiral accept the Seventy-Seventh on the ground that it is higher law and that Provision 204 is supplementary to it. Their opponents cite the Seventh Spiral Inquiry, which examined the lower seams for a full season and reported that the drills met refusal at a consistent depth, though it declined to say what was refusing. The Inquiry's report is bound in Middle Seam boards.

Known Incidents

In the fourth winter after the Sealing, a block raised from the Votive Seam was found to bear, on its unexposed face, an inscription in a hand identical to that of the Seventy-Seventh Clarification's vellum copy. The block was returned to the seam and the aperture closed with slate. The incident is recorded in the Registry without further remark.

A separate matter concerns the quarry's drainage channel, which runs beneath the third landing and has flooded twice. On both occasions the water was found to be warm. The overseers attributed this to the depth of the workings; the Clerks of the Seventh Spiral attributed it to the drainage; the two offices have not spoken since.

Access and Current Status

The quarry is open to inspection by registered parties on the second and fifth days of each week, and visitors are asked to leave their boots at the third landing. Quarry Sigma continues to raise approximately forty blocks a season. The basalt is presently held to be in good order, though the North Seam is reported to be singing, a condition the overseers regard as seasonal.